Secret Agent Mills
by milkblush
Summary: SwanQueen AU Regina Mills is a secret agent at the Agency of Supernatural Findings. It is a secret government agency that deals with magical and supernatural cases. Regina suffered a serious injury and lost her partner and husband, Daniel, in the process. Her son, Henry wants to avenge his father's death by joining the agency. Henry finds the balance between good and evil.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Oh my god! Daniel! You're bleeding!"

Regina ran to her motionless partner, immediately applying pressure onto his bleeding chest. Daniel winced at the pain. He felt his lungs ached with every breath he took. He breathed in a deep breath and grasped onto the brunette's hand.

"Go… you… need… to…" a single tear rolled down his cheek, losing consciousness.

"No! Daniel! Hold on! You will make it! Please! Stay awake!"

"I'm afraid it's too late." a low British accent suddenly filled the dark warehouse. "Say goodbye to your husband, Regina!"

A figure emerges from the shadows; a scruffy man who looks to be middle aged strode closer to the duo, pleased at his handiwork.

Agent Regina Mills raised her right hand towards the ceiling, conjured up a protection spell to defend against the impending attack.

Just as the shield began to form, the assailant threw a huge fireball at the agents.

 _Gasps._

Chocolate brown eyes opened to the sight of blurry lights. It must have been closed for some time. Was it a dream? She wondered to herself.

"Mom?" The deep but familiar voice broke the silence. "Mom, don't try to get up."

"Hen… ry?" A soft whisper found it's way out the dry and parched throat.

Regina tried lifting her fingers. She can't seem to be able to do it. She can't seem to be able to do anything. A slight panic ran through her mind. She had forgotten how to move her fingers.

"Doctor! Doctor! My mum has woken up!" Tears of joy flooded Henry Mills' eyes as he called for the attention of his mother's attending doctor. "Don't try to move mum. It's okay, you will be okay." Henry calmed his mother as Dr. Whale rushed into the room.

Dr. Whale checked the monitors as he approached closer to his patient. "Hello. I am Dr. Whale, do you remember your name?"

"R… R… Regina…" The patient replied.

"Do you remember what happened to you?" Queried the doctor.

"I… I was… shot…" A sudden realisation hit her. "Daniel!" She lifted her head in an attempt to get up from the bed. Her love had been killed! It wasn't a dream!

"Please do try to rest. I know this is hard for you." The blonde doctor took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry but Daniel did not make it." This has always been the hard part for a doctor. Complicated brain surgery is nothing compared to having to break a bad news to the family of a deceased.

Tears started pouring down the agent's face. The love of her life was gone. She would have given up on life if it wasn't for Henry. She had to survive for him. Regina turned to look to her son for strength. Henry bit back his tears. While his mother had been in a coma, he had to deal with his father's funeral proceedings. It was too much for a young man to deal with.

"Knock knock!" a feminine voice came from the doorway.

"Emma! Mom is awake!" Henry exclaimed. He felt like a little boy at that moment.

Emma crossed the room to join the group of people.

"Agent Mills. I'm glad that you have woken up. Henry here have been very worried about you." Emma ruffled Henry's hair. Her relationship with Henry have grown so much in the duration of his mother's coma. Regina caught on the familiarity. She wonders who this strange woman standing in front of her was.

"Thank you. Who are you?" The brunette's question appeared more curt than she intended to. Dr. Whale continued on with checking the information presented on the machine, trying hard not to react to the uncomfortable scene that is unfolding.

"I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. Emma Swan. I'm Henry's partner." the blonde woman replied with a huge grin on her face.

Regina squinted at that bit on information. "Aren't you a little old to be dating my son?"

"Oh my god! No! Sorry! I meant his partner in the agency" Agent Swan was never really good at communicating. She definitely picked the wrong time to demonstrate this quirk of hers.

"What agency? Henry? Aren't you in college still?" Regina asked her son.

"Mom, I dropped out." Henry said slowly. Trying to not shocked his fragile mother into another coma. "After dad's passing and your being in the hospital, I was having a hard time coping with my studies. "I… I joined the ASF."

Regina's jaw fell to the floor.

"Why?" That one simple word Regina uttered was heavily loaded with worry.

Henry's eyes darkened with anger fighting back his tears. He looked deep into his mother's eyes.

"Revenge."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 _Revenge_

Regina was having trouble sleeping that night. Henry's voice was ringing in her head. She had never seen her son filled with so much anger; not even when his debate team lost the finals to the rival team in high school.

Her son had left not long after his confession for joining the Agency of Supernatural Findings. Even though he had waited for almost a year to see his mother wake up from the coma, he found it hard to face his emotions.

Henry had rehearsed telling his mom several times at home in front of a mirror. He didn't expect to be caught off guard like that. He didn't want his mother to worry. But that was the thing he left his mother with.

Worry.

A word that keep mothers up all night. Imagining various terrifying scenarios in their heads, waiting for some indication that their children are alright.

The brunette is determined to get discharged from the hospital as soon as possible. She needs to protect her son. She cannot let him be destroyed by the same person who had taken her beloved husband from her.

Regina tries to raise her arm off the mattress. She only manages to wiggle her fingers slightly. She had been asleep for too long, her muscles had gone weak. It might take longer than she would have liked. She let out a frustrated sigh.

Henry sighed. He regrets leaving the hospital that way. He should have been there with his mom. It was the first time he got to see her eyes look into his in almost a year. To hear her voice say his name again. How he longed to hear his mother speak to him.

His rest was interrupted by guilt. He can't go back to the hospital now, it was way past visiting hours. He should have stayed. Even if it meant that he had to hear his mother stop him from working for the agency.

Of course she would worry. Why wouldn't she? She almost lost her life and her husband from working there. But the young brunette needed to do something about the attack. He couldn't just sit idly by when the man responsible for destroying his family walks away scot-free.

The young man is still new to the agency. He is only given small simple cases so far and under the close supervision of a newly transferred agent from Boston, Agent Emma Swan. He is nowhere near the case his parents were working on. He couldn't even get access to the case files. Whatever the agency was working on, it had to be huge.

Henry got out of his bed and walked to the ensuite bathroom. He turned on the hot and cold taps in the sink and cupped a handful of water to splash onto his face. He reached for a face towel near the sink and wiped his face. He looked up at his reflection in the mirror in front of him. With a wave of a hand, he conjured the image of his mother from the hospital bed. His heart ached at the sight.

"I will get the person who did this to you… if it is the last thing I do." Henry promised his mother.

"How are you feeling this morning, Regina?" Dr. Whale asked cheerfully.

Regina groaned. It was frustrating enough to have to depend on nurses to help with the most menial things. It was not helping to have a chipper doctor with a bad dye job asking you irritating questions.

"Peachy." The brunette muttered sarcastically.

"Are you able to move any of your limbs yet?" The blonde doctor asked. He needn't wait for a reply to know the answer to that question. The patient's death stare was enough of an indication.

"I've scheduled you in for a physiotherapy session today. The physiotherapist will conduct the first session in your room. Your body will soon regain it's functionality."

Regina perked up at the news. It would be nice to be able to use her hands to conjure up a spell to turn the doctor's bleached hair into grass. But alas, she cannot use her magical powers in the presence of mere mortals. The thought alone was enough to cheer the witch into a better mood.

"Your injury did not cause any permanent damages to your brain. Your condition is normal for recovering coma patients. You will be able to return to your normal life in no time." Dr. Whale winked a wink akin to that of creeps that hang out at sleazy bars.

Regina rolled her eyes. She spots an expensive pen in the doctor's front pocket. The brunette focused her attention to the pen when the doctor was not looking. She could feel a familiar tingle flow through her body. She raised an index finger, pointing to the pen. A few seconds later, blue ink leaked from the pen.

Dr. Whale looked down and was surprised to see his fountain pen had started bleeding through his pocket.

"Excuse me. I need to.. er.. clean this up." He mumbled and left the room.

Regina nodded her head as a huge grin grew on her face. This confirms it, she still has her magic. The witch was pleased to learn this and Dr. Whale's reaction was just the cherry on top.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Agent Swan looked at the clock in the conference room. Her partner was cutting in pretty close to the meeting time. She was getting anxious as this was a big day for Henry. She glanced around through the frosted glass. The blonde spotted the young man walking into the base. Emma burst out of the room to get to Henry who had just reached his desk.

"Hey kid! How's your mom?" Emma asked, slightly breathless.

"She's doing well I guess." Henry mumbled avoiding eye contact with his partner.

Emma sensed that something was up with him but they did not have time to discuss it at the moment.

"Cheer up kid! I've got good news for you!" Agent Emma Swan might be trained to keep a calm and steady demeanour in her line of work, but at this very moment she was bursting with uncontrollable excitement.

Henry's raised his eyebrow while Emma nodded her head repeatedly.

"Oh my god!" The brunette man exclaimed.

Emma continued to nod her head.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No way!"

"Yes way!"

Agent Emma Swan may be almost twenty years older than Henry but these two have a tendency to behave like high school kids sometimes.

"Come on! They are gonna announce it in the meeting and we are almost late!" The blonde agent grabbed Henry's arm and led him to the conference room

"He has completed his training," The ASF Chief, Agent Graham Humbert announced and beamed with pride as he continued "and has efficiently solved the cases he was given. He has worked really hard, I couldn't be more proud that Henry Mills is officially a full-fledged agent of the ASF. Congratulations Henry! You deserve it!"

Everybody in the conference room cheered and applauded. Henry sheepishly received his badge from the Chief. Agent Humbert patted Agent Mills' shoulder. A single tear trickled down Emma's face. She quickly wiped it off before anybody noticed.

Henry's parents were the best agents at the ASF. When Henry came in, everybody could see that he had it in his genes. He wasn't just a product of the best witches of the country, he was his own unique witch. He could perform spells most new agents had trouble performing. He solved complicated cases with ease. This day had been a long time coming.

Emma had gone back to her desk to look through the new case the chief had given them, leaving Henry to bask in the limelight. The rest of the agents took turns congratulating the newly promoted agent and cleared out of the room. The Mills' close family friend, David Nolan and Mary-Margaret Blanchard, were the last two to congratulate him. They walked towards Henry.

"Your father would have been so proud of you Henry." David said as he shook the young man's hand.

"You are a great asset to the agency. I'm glad you decided to follow your parents' footsteps." said Mary-Margaret with tears of pride building at the corner of her eyes.

David and Mary-Margaret had watched Henry grow up ever since he was a baby. They were his godparents and they would dote on him. In some ways, Henry was like a son to them especially since the short brunette was unable to bear children after suffering an injury from one of their dangerous missions. She was one month pregnant at that time when a blast of fireball to the womb caused her to miscarry. It wasn't long before Regina gave birth to this strapping young man standing before them.

"Will you be visiting your mother later? We would love to visit her. Could we come along?" inquired Mary-Margaret. She missed her best friend so much. She was glad to hear that Regina had woken up last night and couldn't wait to see her again.

"Sure… but… please don't talk about the agency too much. My mom needs her rest." Henry hoped that his godparents got the hint that he does not want to make a big deal about his promotion.

Moments later, Henry sat at his desk. For someone who had finally gotten the promotion he had been waiting for, he didn't look too happy. His partner was very concerned.

"Hey kid, why so gloomy?" asked Agent Swan. "Is it about your mom?"

"I thought she would be proud of me." Henry said. "But all I've done was upset her."

"It's a lot to take in kid. She is proud of you. Give her some time to get used to the changes. It'll be okay." reassured Emma.

Henry sighed.

He hoped his partner was right. Even though he joined ASF to avenge his father, he also felt like for the first time in his life that he had a purpose. It's not easy being a witch in a world where the magical side is hidden from the rest of the world.

"Remember Henry, no magic when you are out of the house." Young Regina Mills advised her son.

"I won't mom!" The little boy replied while his mom kissed him on his forehead.

"Have fun at school, little man!" his father said, patting Henry's head.

Henry was so excited to be going to school for the first time. He did not get a lot of chances to meet non-witch kids. His friends at that time were exclusively witches. They were the children of other witches that worked at the agency. Just like any other witch children, Henry went to a kindergarten for witches where they learn to better their magic and also the rules for when it is appropriate to use it. The kindergarten was part of the ASF to equip young witches with life skills to interact with mortals. The children will then move on to a regular elementary school where they integrate with the rest of the world.

" You look so handsome! Smile for the camera!" Cora, Henry's grandmother, snapped a photo of her grandson standing in front of the school bus between his two proud parents.

The bus driver waited patiently for the parents to release their precious child to board the bus. It was the first day and all of the Grade 1 parents took their time to say goodbye to their children as if their child was about to leave them forever.

Henry boarded the bus and walked down the aisle. The other children were a little taller than he was. They looked at him strangely. The young boy was a little nervous. He found an empty seat near the middle of the bus.

"You can sit here!" said the little girl who was already seated next to the empty sit.

"Thank you!" Henry said happily. He was glad that there was at least one person who did not look at him funny.

"I'm Paige!"

"Henry!"

That was the day that he made his first mortal friend. They became close friends all the way through elementary school to high school. She was also the only mortal whom Henry revealed his secret to.

Puberty was the worst time for any witch. Since magic was emotionally connected, the erratic emotions of a pubescent boy would incite random incantations. Whenever Henry felt anger, a fireball would appear in his hand and when he was sad, a handkerchief would come out of his nostrils. The worst was when Paige was near him.

Henry had a crush on his best friend and whenever she was around him, he would get nervous and start to blush. Whenever he blushed, his ears would flop. Henry went through a phase of wearing bandanas on his head due to this very reason.

"Henry! I got you something!" Paige called out excitedly as she spotted her best friend down the hallway.

The young bandana wearing boy walked up to the blonde girl.

"Happy birthday Henry!" Paige presented her best friend with a black fedora hat.

Henry looked nervously at the gift. It was a nice gift. Henry had talked about wanting a fedora hat of his own. He attempted to put it on with his bandana still wrapped around his head.

"No silly! You should take off the bandana. I want to see how you look in it without the bandana." said the blonde who clearly hated the bandana.

"Er… maybe later. I got to get to class."

Henry attempted to walk away but he felt his bandana started unravelling. He turned to see that Paige had pulled the cloth off his head. He froze, not knowing what to do at that moment.

The blonde gasps.

"What is wrong with your ears?" Paige asked through her hands.

"Nothing!"

Henry snatched the bandana from her hand and covered his head. His best friend took a step forward but Henry ran off to the gym where he knew would be empty.

The next day, at a playground near the pier, where Henry and Paige liked to hang out, the young boy approached the blonde who had been sitting on the step overlooking the ocean.

"I'm sorry." Henry said, finally. "I shouldn't have run off like that."

"What happened Henry? Why did your ears do that?" Paige looked at Henry. She realised that Henry wasn't wearing his bandana that day, exposing his floppy ears.

"I'm a witch."

"A witch? Are you messing with me?" The young girl was getting annoyed.

"No."

"Is that why you ears changed?"

"Not really… I'm having trouble controlling my powers. It… it gets like that when I'm nervous."

"Why are you nervous?"

"You make me nervous."

"I make you nervous?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Silence.

"Henry!"

"What?"

"Why do I make you nervous?"

"Because… I like you."

Paige smiled.

"Why are you smiling?" Henry asked.

The blonde kissed her friend's cheek.

"I like you too."

The two of them held hands and watched the scenery in front of them in silence. Henry's ears returned to normal.

Henry left David and Mary-Margaret to catch up with his mom in the hospital room while he went out to get some refreshments.

"Henry?" A familiar voice called out.

The young man turned to see who was calling him. He was surprised to see the owner of the voice.

"Paige?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Paige!" Henry exclaimed! Surprised to see his ex-girlfriend after all these years. "I didn't know you were back in town!"

"Yeah… I've been back for a while now. I've seen the world… didn't like it." The blonde lady replied.

"Are you visiting somebody in the hospital?" The young man was curious. As far as he knew, Paige did not have any close relatives in the city nor did she have many friends.

"Oh! I volunteer as a candy-striper. I come here every once in a while when I have the time."

"Wow! You are very dedicated then. I can't believe that I come here everyday for the past year and have not once bumped into you…"

"Till today." Paige completed.

"Right."

"Who were you visiting then? Must be somebody close if you are here everyday." She guessed.

"My mom." The young man said simply.

"Oh dear! What happened? Is she getting better?" The blonde was genuinely concerned.

"There was an incident at work… she was in a coma. She woke up last night." Henry was cautious to not let too much information out. After his ex-girlfriend betrayed him, he could never trust her again.

"I'm glad to hear that she is getting better."Paige paused. "Maybe the next time you are here, we could get coffee and catch up?"

The young man was not sure what Paige's intentions were. The last time he spoke to the girl, he yelled at her for talking about witchcraft to her friends and exposing him for being a witch. They had a bad break up and Paige transferred school because the other kids would bully her and accuse her of lying.

"I can't… I need to take care of my mother."

"Some other time then?" The blonde said hopeful for a rendezvous.

"I don't think so, Paige. I have a girlfriend." Henry said.

"I wasn't trying to get back together. I just wanted a chance to catch up with an old friend. It has been a while."

"We'll see. I'm sorry but I gotta go." The young man excused himself. He should get back to his mother soon before visiting hours was over.

As Henry disappeared around the corner of the hallway, Paige took out her smartphone and looked through her contact list. She selected a contact and made a call. She waited for the phone to ring a couple of times before the person on the other end answered.

"She's awake." The candy-striper ended her call with a crooked smile on her face as she looked towards the direction Henry went.

"Does he know?" Regina asked Mary-Margaret and David as soon as Henry had left the room.

"No." David replied.

"Keep it that way. He would be devastated if he found out." The patient said. She was now able to sit up. The little physiotherapy combined with some self-healing had allowed her some mobility. But she has not gained her full strength as of yet.

"Do you remember how the assailant looked like?" Inquired Mary-Margaret. They did not have much time to discuss the case. They did not want to do it in the presence of Henry.

"He is foreign. Maybe British. Wait… no… Scottish." Regina's head was starting to hurt again. Trying to force a memory of a traumatic event was not easy. She tried her best to ensure that she was remembering it correctly. Sometimes the brain has a tendency to make up other reality during a trauma.

"Try… please… You are our only lead. You were the only person who saw him in person. It has been a year since the book was stolen and many witches has died since." The smaller brunette begged.

"He is really powerful. He broke through my protection spell." The older woman stated. The other two went silent.

This was bad news. Regina's magic was one of the most powerful in the ASF. The reason she was given the case was because of her powers. Daniel, Mary-Margaret and David was part of the task force created to defeat the thief that stole the ancient spell book. They were chosen because they were the most senior agents aside from their chief.

They were quick to track down the thief. They realised too late that it was a trap. The team split up to cover more grounds in the huge warehouse. Mary-Margaret and David found the accomplice and managed to arrest him. Regina and Daniel found the leader who immediately threw several fireballs at them. Her husband wasn't quick enough to dodge the barrage of blasts headed his way and suffered a fatal hit to the chest.

Regina tried to protect them both with her protection spell but the sorcerer's magic was too strong. A single fireball penetrated the shield and hit the brunette right on her head. He could have finished her off but he decided to rush off with the book.

The ASF is getting desperate." David said, finally. "They may bring Henry into the task force soon. I overheard chief mentioning it today."

"Inform Henry's partner, Agent Swan. Tell her for Henry's sake, stay away from this case." Regina instructed her best friends.

Mary-Margaret and David nodded their heads in unison. Just as they were about to leave, the older woman called out to them.

"Could you guys help me with a little healing spell? I need to speed up my recovery and prepare to get back on this case."

The two best friends looked at each other and then back to Regina.

"This is a mortal hospital. They will get suspicious if you suddenly recovered." Mary-Margaret did have a point.

Regina was feeling helpless. She needed to protect her son. He was the only family she had. If anything, this only motivated her more to recover quicker. Being in the hospital unguarded could leave her vulnerable to another attack and Henry will be all alone. She can't let that happen. She had so much to fight for.

Little did Regina know, Henry had been slowly healing her ever since she was brought into the hospital. It was her son who had saved her life. The doctors told him that the chances of his mother waking up was very slim as she suffered major brain damage.

The young man did not take did this news very well. He decided on that day to break all the rules the government had set out for practicing witches. He took matters into his own hands and healed Regina. It took almost a whole year before all of the damaged brain tissues were repaired.

The doctors did not suspect a thing but they were curious because they have never seen brain tissues repairing itself this quickly to the point of full recovery. Thankfully, they chalked it up to Regina having a strong fighting spirit.

Doctor Whale was not convinced that the healing was natural. But he did not have proof that it was unnatural either. He decided to investigate the activities that goes on in Regina's hospital room by placing a bug to record the conversations in there.

 _… can you guys help me with a little healing spell?_

Witchcraft! Doctor Whale finally got the answer he was looking for.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Lunch was Agent's Swan favourite meal time. She almost always head out to the diner across the street to have their special grilled cheese sandwich. It was special in the sense that the waitress serving her has a ridiculously short skirt on. Emma never mustered enough courage to ask her out but one day she might.

Emma rarely got a chance to eat out with her partner as he would use this time to visit his mother at the hospital. This was a blessing for the blonde as she could drool over the cute waitress and not have someone tease her for it.

"Hey Emma! Could we talk to you?" The blonde snapped out of her daydream to turn to the source of the voice. It was Agent Blanchard with Agent Nolan tagging on the side. These two were the clingiest couple Emma has ever met.

"Sure!" It's not like she had anywhere to rush off to. She can't call it a date if the other party was unaware that she was on one.

"Maybe we could discuss it over lunch?" Suggested David.

The young agent eyed her seniors carefully trying to read the nature of this sudden need to hijack her lunch plans. Reading the faces of secret agents who spend their lives hiding their real identity to the rest of the world is pointless. Emma agreed to have lunch with them.

"We can go to that diner that you always go to." Said Mary-Margaret.

 _Shit! Somebody noticed._

At the diner, Emma and the other two agents sat at her regular booth. A tall brunette with red streaks in her hair approached their tables to hand out menus. She gave a little smile to the blonde who felt her insides melt.

"I'll be back to take your order." said the waitress.

Emma's crush walked back to behind the counter and busied herself with drying the cups and putting them away under the counter. The blonde pretended to look at the menu while stealing glances at the waitress. She didn't need to look at the menu. She already knew what she wanted. Emma blocked out the other agents' discussion on what they would like to eat.

The waitress looked up and Emma covered her face with the menu this caused the brunette to smirk. She had caught the blonde stealing glances before and she found it adorable. It was becoming apparent that her admirer was very shy. She took out a paper napkin from the counter and scribbled something on it with her pen. Smiling to herself, she folded the napkin and walked back to the agents' booth.

"Are you ready to order?" The waitress asked.

"Can we have two BLTs and two coffees; black." David ordered.

"And I'll have…" Emma tried to order.

"A grilled cheese sandwich and a hot chocolate with cinnamon." The waitress finished with a wink.

Emma blushed. She did not notice that the waitress had dropped a napkin on her lap. The brunette collected the menu and disappeared into the kitchen. Just then, the blonde finally noticed the napkin. She opened it discreetly under the table. Her heart started racing as she read the message written within.

 _Hi!_

 _You are very cute and I am flattered but I am in a committed relationship. We can be friends though._

 _Ruby_

Slumped in her seat, Emma was a little disappointed but at least now she knows and she did not have to wonder anymore.

"So… the reason we wanted to talk to you is…" Mary-Margaret started talking.

The blonde looked up and listened intently, trying not to get distracted by the note. She _was_ here with company.

"… Henry." She finished.

"Henry?" Emma asked.

"Yes."

"What about him?"

"We think that chief will ask the two of you to join the task force for the big case we are working on." David added.

Emma perked up at the news. Finally she gets to work on something big. She hasn't done anything bigger than cleaning up after witches' misdemeanours since she moved to Maine.

"We want you to convince Henry not to take it." Mary-Margaret completed.

The blonde felt confused. This was big. Henry had been working hard to be given this opportunity and Emma was a powerful witch that could handle cases this big. This was the reason she was transferred to Maine in the first place! After Agent Regina Mills and Agent Daniel Mills had been out of commission, the ASF Maine unit needed somebody equally qualified to take over. But instead, she had to babysit their son, which she enjoyed but it undermines her capabilities.

"I don't think that that is up to you to decide." The blonde was getting furious.

"Emma, I know that Henry had been looking forward to this opportunity but his mother thinks that this is for the best." David tried to reason.

This was ridiculous. Henry is a very qualified and gifted individual. He would have been a great asset to the team. Emma was certain that she could keep her partner in check and not let him get too personal. Agent Humbert was a wise man. He knew what he was doing. If he thought that Henry was ready then he should be given the opportunity.

Emma could not be at the same table with them anymore. She got up and walked out of the diner.

Henry walked into his mother's hospital room. Regina had been recovering well. She was now able to move her arms with full control. The young man smiled as he watched his mom doing the crossword puzzle in the newspaper.

"Hi mom!"

Regina looked up from the paper and smiled.

"Henry!"

Even though her son had been visiting her every single day that she had woken up, she was always delighted to see him. She noticed that her only son had brought food for their lunch. Regina was sick of eating the crappy hospital food. She was sure that there was no nutritional value in the Jell-o that hospitals like to give to their patients.

"I brought your favourite lasagne." Henry was pleased with himself. Now that his mother was able to eat solid food on her own he thought that he would give his mom a treat.

"You are an angel!" Clearly, Regina was pleased as well.

Since the hospital was 15 minutes away from the base, Henry could only afford to spend a short time with his mother. But that was fine because he visited her after work as well. He had been doing this every single day since his mother got admitted. He loved his mother dearly.

Not a minute after Henry had left the room, in walks a very angry blonde.

"Who do you think you are!" Emma shouted.

"I'm sorry?" Regina was confused.

"You have no right to decide the cases Henry should or shouldn't do!"

"Of course I do! I am his mother!"

"Henry is a grown man! He can take care of himself!"

"Not this case. It's too personal for him to handle." Regina changed her tone. She spoke gently. Almost sad.

"I know that this case is personal for him. But I will be there. I will make sure that he does not lose control." Emma softened her tone too.

"There is something you must know. If you think that what I am about to tell you won't affect Henry in any way, I will allow him to take the case. But if you are unable to look out for him, I will hurt you so bad you wouldn't know what hit you." The brunette threatened. Even though she was still immobile, her treat felt real.

"Well? What is it then?" Emma asked finally.

"The assailant… he had accomplices." Regina began slowly.

"Okay…" The blonde was starting to lose her patience but she needed to hear what this woman had to say.

"One of them, is Henry's childhood friend."

"Oh."

"The other, the one that we managed to apprehend, is her father."

This case was starting to look complicated. Why would a childhood friend of the sweetest man the blonde had ever known, result to such a crime.

"You may want to take a seat Ms Swan." The brunette instructed.

Emma pulled a chair close to the side of the bed and listened to the story Regina was about to tell her.

"You see, when Henry was in high school, he dated a girl named Paige. They practically grew up together, being friends since elementary school. Henry revealed to Paige that he was a witch."

"Is Paige a witch as well?"

"No. She is mortal. But after she learned that Henry was a witch, she started becoming obsessed with witchcraft. She wanted to have powers like Henry's. Maybe even more."

"Was that the reason for their breakup?"

"No. Henry didn't mind teaching her some simple harmless spells. He was happy that he could share this with his best friend. But Paige lost Henry's trust after she revealed his secret to the school population. The ASF cleared that up of course and that clean up also involved moving her out of the state."

Emma was pretty aware of how the ASF operated. They would do anything to keep the supernatural world a secret. It was for the greater good.

"Henry blamed himself because he thought that he had chased her away. He didn't know that ASF was behind it all along."

"And you never told him?"

"I couldn't. ASF didn't let us tell him. It took months before we saw him smile again."

"How did Paige get involved with the spell book then?" The blonde inquired.

"Her obsession with magic led her to join a cult of mortals who shared their knowledge of spells. Her estranged father was part of that cult. He had been in and out of prison for many burglary charges. We have reason to believe that the mastermind behind the spell book heist got to know of them though the cult. The cult would do anything to get their hands on new spells."

"How would he know about the spell book? ASF had kept it a secret for centuries!"

"We have no intelligence on how the knew about the book. But Paige knew where the ASF base was located. She must've told the others."

"How did she know about the base?"

"Henry showed her."

Emma was shocked. Mortals were not allowed in the base. The ASF base around the country had been cleverly disguised as normal unsuspecting offices hidden in plain sight. Any mortal who know about the base would jeopardise the whole operation.

"I know what you are thinking. I don't blame Henry. He was young and in love. He wasn't aware that it would lead to this."

"Does the chief know?"

"The chief does not know about what Henry had done nor his relationship with Paige. I think the ASF would arrest him for treason if they found out. Now you know why I don't want him involved in the case?"

"I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"It's alright. You really care about my son don't you?"

Emma nodded her head.

"Please convince him to not take this case but don't tell him the reason." Regina begged.

This was a very tricky situation but she cared about Henry. She wouldn't want him to get into trouble or to get affected by the full details of the case. Emma had to stop Henry no matter the cost.

"I will stop him."

"Thank you Agent Swan."

"Please. Just call me Emma."

"Alright. Emma." Regina smiled at the blonde. Her eyes was full of kindness.

Emma did not realise this before but despite being in a hospital gown and losing weight from the coma, Agent Regina Mills was actually a beautiful woman. The blonde found herself lingering longer than she should.

"I'm sorry but don't you have to get back to the base by now?" the brunette reminded Emma.

"Oh fuck! I didn't realise I've been here for so long." The blonde panicked and with a big poof, she magically teleported herself back to the base.

 _What a strange woman._ Regina thought to herself.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"This could be the future of medicine!" Dr Whale exclaimed to the board of directors from the hospital.

He was convinced that if he could get hold of some witches, they could use their powers to heal coma patients. The hospital would be sought after to help patients who were comatose.

The board of directors were having none of it.

"You have obviously lost your mind Whale. There is no way we will ever consider using voodoo to heal." said one director.

"We are people of science not fantasy!" said another.

"You better stop this nonsense now before we suspend your license. Any more talk like this will leave us no choice but to kick you out of the hospital!" warned another.

Dr Whale left the board room and headed towards the wards.

How could he have been so stupid? These old doctors would never consider alternative remedies even if they had worked. He needed to take matters into his own hands and find out more about the world of witches. He needed to know what this ASF was and how he could get witches to work for him. He should open his own practice. He didn't need to reveal it's witchcraft, he just needed to make it look like medicine.

Emma's tummy rumbled. She forgot that she skipped lunch when she was at the diner. She would have to have an early dinner then. Just as she approached her table, she noticed a white paper bag. She inspected it closely. It had the logo of the diner!

She took a peek inside to see if her suspicion was right. Right there in the paper bag, was the grilled cheese sandwich that she had ordered. She looked around the base and spotted Mary-Margaret who looked back. She could tell from the brunette's eyes that she had placed it on Emma's table.

The blonde nodded with a smile to indicate her appreciation before taking a huge bite into the sandwich.

The elevator doors opened and out walked a smiling Henry and the chief. Henry strode over to Emma who was still munching on her sandwich.

"Your mom doing better, kid?" Emma asked even though she had just seen the woman.

"Yeah! But that's not why I'm smiling. Chief told me that we will be joining a task force meeting later today." Henry said excitedly.

Emma stopped mid-bite.

"Task force for which case?" she said as she put down the sandwich.

"The stolen spell book case of course!"

Emma faked a smile.

"Isn't it too soon to be working on something that big? You've only just gotten the promotion and aren't we working on that mysterious witch murders?"

"Chief says it's linked. Besides, if he thinks I'm ready, who am I to argue? Plus other agents are also working on it."

 _He does have a point_. Emma thought to herself.

"What time is the meeting?"

"2 p.m.."

The excitement on Henry's face made the blonde's heart ached at the thought of ripping the case from his hands. She couldn't think of anything to say to the young agent. She needs help.

Emma gobbled up the rest of the sandwich and headed to the wash room. She passed by Mary-Margaret's desk and signalled for her to follow.

They entered the wash room. Emma walked up to the sink and started washing her hands.

"I can't do it!" The blonde said finally.

"You can't do…?" Mary-Margaret was confused.

"I can't stop Henry from working on the spell book case."

"Oh."

"After I left the diner, I went to see his mother at the hospital. She explained everything."

"And you still want him to do the case?"

"No. He shouldn't do it. But I don't know how to stop him. I need your help."

"We need to tell chief."

"No. Henry will get in trouble."

"We'll just tell him enough information for him to reconsider."

"Worth a shot."

The two ladies sneaked out of the wash room. Henry's desk was facing away from where they were. They quickly walked towards Agent Humbert's office.

Two knocks on the door.

"Come in." said the voice inside the office.

Agent Swan and Agent Blanchard walked into the office.

"What can I do for you, agents?"

"I heard from Agent Swan that she and Agent Mills will be on the task force." Mary-Margaret said calmly.

"Yes. That is correct." replied the chief.

"We are concerned that Agent Mills is too emotional about his parents to be able to work on the case objectively. It might jeopardise the investigation." said the brunette.

"I see. And do you share the same sentiments, agent Swan?"

"Yes, sir."

Agent Graham Humbert thought about this for a moment.

"I'll sort this out during the meeting later. Thank you agents."

The two ladies looked confused but they trusted that the chief will do what was best.

The chief started his briefing to the task force. Henry and Emma was amongst them along with Mary-Margaret, David, Agent August Booth and Agent Lily Page. Both August and Lily transferred from the New York base to assist with the investigation.

"We have been working on this case for over a year now and the tracks are getting cold." said Agent Humbert.

"I have asked Agent Mills and Agent Swan here to see if there are any leads we could use from the mysterious deaths in the Maine witch community."

Emma eyed Henry's reaction to what the chief was saying. He seemed to be very serious and focused.

"The deaths are random. There aren't any clear pattern to the choice of victims. But all of them had this symbol carved into their foreheads post mortem." Henry referred to the picture of a 7 point star on the screen.

"Isn't that the symbol for Magickal Energy?" asked Lily.

"That's right. It's used in the Magick cult amongst mortals who practices the occult." Emma chimed in.

"The symbols on the forehead allows the powers the witches possessed to be released and the mortals can absorb that power." Henry added.

"Whoever the murderer is, they are very powerful by now." The chief concluded.

"It isn't bad enough that we are dealing with bad witches and demons, we have to deal with powerful mortals as well?" August said exasperated.

"Agent Mills, I need you to pass all the information pertaining to your case to the task force. We will take it from here." the chief instructed.

"Wait! What?! I thought…" Henry was confused. He thought that he was in the task force.

"You are emotionally involved with the case. These people killed your father." Agent Humbert explained.

"Exactly! And that is why I want to help." Henry argued.

"Henry, your mother does not want you to get involved." Emma added.

"You talked to my mother about this?" Henry felt betrayed.

Emma did not mean to let out that she had spoken to his mother but she was getting desperate.

"We will get the person responsible, Henry. Justice will be served." David piped in.

"And you expect me to just sit around and wait? It's been over a year now and you guys are nowhere close to solving it." The young man was furious with the whole team and especially with Emma. She had no right to visit his mother and discuss matters concerning him.

"You don't want me to help you with the case? Fine! I will do it on my own! I quit!" Henry shouted at everybody.

Everyone was shocked. Henry stormed out of the room. Emma went after him. Henry reached his desk and started gathering his things and placed them into a box.

"Henry! Wait!" Emma called out.

"Why? I trusted you. I thought you wanted to do this with me."

"I did. But it's complicated now. There are things in this case that may hurt you."

"And let me guess. You cannot tell me."

"Your mom doesn't want you to know."

"Then I'll ask her. Goodbye Agent Swan." Henry took the box of his belongings with him and left the base for good.

Those last words Henry said sounded cold. The blonde's green eyes started tearing. She had lost her best friend.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Regina looked around her room. It didn't seem like there would be anybody passing by her room anytime soon. She placed a hand down her blankets and used her powers to heal her legs. She missed being able to move around; to feel the ground with her feet.

Her daily physiotherapy sessions left her feeling frustrated. She felt useless and feeble because she couldn't even lift her legs off the bed on her own.

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard down the corridor. Regina immediately stopped her healing and turned to the doorway. It was Doctor Whale.

"How are you this evening, Regina?" the doctor asked routinely.

"I'm doing great." the brunette replied dryly contradicting her statement.

"I'm surprised you are not walking yet."

"Really? Am I healing too slowly?" Regina was feeling concerned that this meant that her injuries have affected her ability to walk again.

"On the contrary, your entire healing process for your brain injuries was extremely fast. Beyond anything that have been recorded medically."

Warning lights started flashing in Regina's mind. _What was the doctor implying?_

"It seemed as if it was a miracle or maybe you had help." The warm and friendly energy was absent from the doctor's eyes. He seemed to be a totally different person.

"Maybe I was just lucky?" the patient answered warily.

"Or… you had been healing yourself with magic?" Dr Whale said accusingly.

"Are you high? There is no such thing as magic. What kind of doctor are you?" Regina was getting defensive.

"You can try to hide your secrets, Regina. But I will uncover the truth!" the doctor grabbed her hand that didn't have the IV drip attached and drew out some blood.

The witch stopped herself from using magic. She did not want to give this man any more reasons to suspect that she was a witch. Tears were brimming her chocolate eyes. She watched in horror as the doctor drew out four vials of her blood.

Satisfied with what he came for, Dr Whale left the room.

Moments later, she heard footsteps coming towards her room again. She prayed that it was her son and not the doctor. Regina readied a fireball in her hand in defence in case it was the wretched doctor.

"Henry?" A feminine voice called out from outside the doorway.

It was Emma. Relieved, the brunette clenched her fist to get rid of the fireball.

"Regina, was Henry here?"

"Not since this afternoon. What's wrong?"

"Er…" Emma did not know how to put this. "Henry did not take the news of not being part of the task force well… He had gone rogue"

"What?!" Could this day get any worst for Regina?

Emma moved closer to the brunette's bed. She noticed Regina's cheeks had been wet. She had been crying earlier.

"Regina, have you been crying? Are you okay?"

Regina bit her lips. She was hoping that it was her son who had come to her rescue. She will have to do with whatever she got.

"Help me out of here." the brunette demanded.

"Out of the room?"

"No. The hospital. Take me away from here. Please." Regina was fighting her tears from falling down her face again.

"Why?" the blonde was concerned.

"The doctor. He suspects that I've been healing myself with magic."

"Regina!"

"I know. I only did it a little bit. But I think Henry had been healing me. If my injuries were as bad as the doctor had put it, he may have been healing me for a long time."

"I'll alert the ASF to deal with the doctor. I'll teleport you away from here."

"Thank you." Regina smiled at the blonde.

Emma carefully removed the IV drip from Regina's hand. She pulled the blanket off the brunette's body and cradled her into her arms. She closed her eyes and a big cloud of smoke swirled around them both. When she opened back her eyes, she was in the parking garage next to her yellow Volkswagen bug.

The blonde tried her best to open the passenger door while carrying the brunette whom had her arms wrapped around Emma's neck. When she successfully opened the door, she gently placed her companion into the passenger seat. She buckled Regina in and closed the door.

She hurried over to the driver's seat, looking around to make sure that nobody was around watching her bringing home a hospital patient. Emma sat down, closed the door and buckled her seatbelt.

"You're strong." Regina said, out of the blue after driving for a while.

"What?"

"You're very strong to be able to carry me like that."

"Thanks." Emma was not sure where this conversation was going.

"Thank you for saving me." the brunette was genuinely grateful.

"What exactly did the doctor do to you?" the blonde's voice was dripping with concern.

"He forcibly drew some blood out of me."

'What?!" Emma slammed on the brakes. Luckily, there wasn't that much traffic that time of night.

"Did he hurt you?" the blonde looked Regina in the eyes.

The brunette was touched that this stranger that she barely knew had cared for her well-being.

"Nothing I couldn't handle… You came in at the right time. Had you not come…" Regina started crying.

"Hey. It's okay." Emma removed her seatbelt and hugged her passenger. "You are safe now."

The brunette leaned into the hug. It felt good to be in Emma's arms after such a traumatic event. She had never been hugged like that since Daniel. Regina broke away from the hug. Realising she was still wearing her hospital gown.

"I need to get out of this clothes." said the brunette.

"What?"

Regina indicated the hospital gown she was wearing.

"Oh."

Emma waved her hands over the brunette's body. The hospital gown had transformed into a nice red dress and on her feet a nice pair of red high heels. Regina looked down and raised an eyebrow.

"Too much?" Emma asked.

"Maybe something a little casual." the brunette chuckled.

The blonde smiled and waved her hands again. Regina was now wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans and sneakers.

"Better?" the blonde asked.

"Yup." Regina smiled.

"So… where is your place?" Emma asked.

"Take me to Henry's apartment. I need to speak to him." the brunette's tone was serious now.

Emma nodded her head and started driving again.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Henry placed his box in the back seat of his blue Subaru sedan. He couldn't believe his day. He thought that he had done all that he could to prove that he could handle this case. But they judged his capabilities based on his parents. Does his talents mean nothing to them? Henry took one last look towards the exit door of the parking garage that led to the base.

He was leaving the place where he felt he had belonged.

 _I can't go back there anymore. So many people are doing things behind my back. I can't event trust my own partner. How could she? How could Emma just discuss about me with my mother without my knowledge?_ Henry thought to himself.

The young man opened the car doors, got in, turn on the engine and drove off. He was too angry to see his mother immediately. He decided to go home and have a bath to cool off. His mother may be recovering but she is too sick to have him come over and argue.

Upon reaching Henry's apartment building, Emma searched for the nearest parking space. There weren't any close by. She will have to carry Regina to the doors. She found a spot across the street.

"I'm sorry, there wasn't any spot closer. I guess I have to carry you again." the blonde said nervously. She had no idea why she was feeling so nervous.

"I don't think that will be necessary. Let me try to heal my legs." Regina said.

The brunette waved her hands over her legs. She could feel the energy pulsing through her body and out through her fingertips. She could feel a tingle in her legs but she couldn't move them still. Regina felt exhausted. She had used so much of her power. She was feeling weak.

"Here, let me try." said Emma.

Emma performed the same magic Regina did. After she was done, both women looked at the brunette's legs. Regina tried lifting her right leg. It moved! Then, she tried her left. It moved as well! They cheered and wrapped their arms around one another.

"Let's take them out for a test run, shall we?" the blonde suggested.

Regina nodded her head. Emma got out of the car and opened the passenger door for her friend. She offered her hand to help the brunette out of the car. Regina placed one hand on the car door and another in Emma's. She placed her right foot firmly on the pavement. It was feeling a little wobbly. She took in a deep breath and tried to steady herself. She placed her other foot out next to the other. Another quick breath before she pushed herself up.

Emma felt Regina losing her balance and quickly grabbed hold of the brunette's waist.

"Take it slow." Emma whispered.

The brunette nodded her head against Emma's shoulders. Her red leather jacket felt cold on Regina's chin. Feeling a little more confident, the brunette tried once more to stand on her own. Emma upon seeing Regina standing, slowly let go of her hold.

She did it! Regina could stand! The brunette made an attempt to move her feet to start walking. Her initial steps were more of a shuffle. After gaining a bit of a momentum, she widen her stride. Before she knew it, she was walking. She walked a few paces before stopping. Regina turned to face Emma.

"Thank you."

Emma smiled.

"You're welcome, your majesty." the blonde bowed.

Regina was having so much fun being around this woman. No wonder she and Henry got along.

 _Henry! Right!_ _They were there to talk to her son._ Regina remembered.

"Which one is Henry's apartment?" the brunette asked Emma.

The blonde pointed to the one across the street. This was actually the first time Regina visited Henry's apartment.

Her son was previously living in a dorm at the University of Maine. After he had dropped out of college, he found an apartment outside of the city. He used the money his father left him in the will. It wasn't a huge apartment but it was enough for a young man living on his own.

The two ladies walked slowly towards the apartment. Even though, Regina could finally walk, she was still cautious as she did not want to fall.

The sound of doorbell ringing woke Henry up from his sleep. He had fallen asleep after taking a bath in the afternoon. He grabbed a shirt from his chair and put it on his body. He was already wearing sweatpants. The young man rubbed his eyes and headed towards the door. He had no idea what time it was. He turned on the lights along the way.

He turned the door knob and peered out of the crack of the door. It was his mother.

"Mom?" Henry was surprised.

The last time he checked, his mother was still bedridden.

"When did you get discharged?"

"I didn't. Could we come inside?"

"We?" Henry was confused until he saw Emma standing behind his mother. "Oh." was the only sound Henry could make.

The two women entered the apartment, Henry closed the door behind them.

"This is a lovely place, Henry." Regina said.

"Thanks. Mom, how come you are not in the hospital anymore?"

"I wanted to see you. Emma told me that you left the ASF."

"And what was Emma doing talking to you?" Henry was getting furious.

"Kid, I was looking for you at the hospital. I thought you might be there." Emma said.

"Why?" Henry asked.

"I want you to come back to the ASF. We need you. I need you!" The sincerity of that statement from the blonde touched Regina.

"Well I don't need them or you! You gave me hope and promises and you take them away from me!" Henry roared.

"Henry, sweetie, I told them to take you off the case." His mother piped in. Unable to witness the scene any further especially not to the woman who had saved her from the evil doctor.

"Why did you do that, mom? I know you are worried but you loved what you did at the ASF didn't you?"

"You are right. From what I heard, you were really good. You make me so proud, honey." Regina was beaming with pride.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Then what are you hiding things from me?" Henry demanded to know.

"It's best if we don't discuss it. Let the agents working on the case sort it out. There are plenty other cases that need your specialities."

"Your mother is right, Henry. You know the agents, they will solve the case." said the blonde.

"I won't be kept in the dark any longer. If you don't want to tell me, you don't need to be here." Henry raised his hand, ready to use his powers on the two people he had trusted the most.

"Henry, you are not thinking clearly. If you let anger and rage rule your actions, you will end up hurting yourself. Don't let the darkness consume you." his mother warned.

"Too late." the young witch opened his palm in front of him, letting the magic flow out.

The two women found themselves surrounded by purple smoke. When the smoke finally dissipated, they found that they were by the road, outside of the apartment.

"I can't believe my son had just kicked me out of his home and with magic!" Regina exclaimed in disbelieve.

"Let's just give him some space. Wanna get some drinks?" Emma offered.

"Sure." the brunette smiled.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Back in his office, Dr Whale watched the live footage from Regina Mills' room. He had placed a spy camera in the patient's room while she was sleeping. So far nothing was happening. He waited patiently for the witch to use her magic and catch it on tape.

Minutes passed and all he saw was Regina crying. He had been very rough on her and it was understandable that she was affected by the incident but he had to provoke her. That was the only way he could be sure that she would try some magic.

Suddenly, he saw the woman conjure a fireball in her hand.

 _Got you!_ He thought to himself.

He saw the blonde from the other day enter the fireball was gone. That footage of the fireball was not long enough. He then realised that this woman was from the same agency Regina worked at. He continued watching.

A cloud of smoke engulfed the two women and when the smoke dissipated, the two women were gone. The doctor needed to know where they had gone to. He ran off to the parking garage to get to his car. He brought with him Regina Mills' file that also included her address and contact information. He figured that the brunette would probably go home. Well, it was worth a try anyway.

He entered the door that led to the parking garage and went down the stairs. Upon reaching the parking garage, he saw a yellow Volkswagen bug past him. He recognised the two women in the car. They had teleported to the parking garage.

Dr Whale rushed to his car so that he could trail the witches.

There was a small bar around the corner from Henry's apartment. Emma had been to that bar a few times with Henry after a long day of solving crimes. She liked the atmosphere. The music wasn't too loud and there were rarely many people there.

Emma and Regina found a table near the back and sat down.

"This place is nice." Regina observed.

"I know. That's why I like it."

"You come here often?"

"You trying to pick me up?" Emma teased.

The brunette's cheeks turned bright pink and it was visible even with the dim lighting. She was enjoying herself. She forgot that she had a bad day for the most part. Emma seemed to have been able to put her worry at bay.

A waitress came by their table and the blonde ordered a beer while Regina ordered red wine.

"Tell me something about yourself." Said Regina.

"What do you wanna know?"

"I've never seen you in the ASF before. Are you new there?"

"I was in the Boston base before I transferred to Maine." Emma answered.

"Any reason behind the transfer?"

The expression on the blonde's face became a little sad.

"I'm sorry if I'm prying. You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Regina touched Emma's shoulder.

"No. It's okay. I was romantically involved with an agent."

"Oh."

"We broke up and it was difficult to work in the same place because she cheated on me with another agent."

Regina looked up when Emma mentioned the word 'she'. Emma paused because their drinks had arrived. The blonde took a sip before continuing.

"So I requested for a transfer. The chief recommended me to the Maine base to assist with the spell book case."

"You were involved with a girl?"

"Yup. Can't be a lesbian if you're only dating guys can you?" Emma winked.

The brunette did not know how she felt about it. She had never had a gay friend before.

 _Does Emma think that this was a date?_ Regina was worried that she was sending the wrong signal.

"I'm straight." the brunette claimed.

Emma was confused at the sudden declaration.

"Okay…"

"Just wanted to be clear."

"Good."

"Good." Regina nodded her head.

She wanted to kill herself at that very moment. She was making a fool of herself. She needed to get out of there immediately and hide her face. The brunette downed her glass of wine.

"I've gotta go." Regina said suddenly.

"Do you want me to drive you back?" Emma inquired.

"No. I can poof myself back. Thanks for tonight." the brunette said as she made her way to the exit.

The blonde was left completely puzzled by the whole situation.

Henry looked around his empty apartment. He may be a little hasty to have kicked his own mother out. He didn't even ask how she was able to walk and why she was wearing a t-shirt

and jeans. He had never seen her mom dress like that before. He could just call her up and ask but he didn't want to appear weak or apologise for his actions.

The ex-agent decided to pack up his essential belongings and start his investigation.

 _I should probably stay somewhere where my mom, Emma, or the rest of the ASF won't look for me._ He thought to himself.

He added a few more clothes in his duffle bag. He had no idea how long he was going to be off the grid. He figured that he shouldn't need to worry about his mother anymore since she was out of the hospital and seemed to have recovered well. Emma, Mary-Margaret and David could look after her while he was gone.

Having already slept the afternoon away, Henry had a lot of energy. He intended to drive to the city to crash at his girlfriend's apartment near the college. It had been a while since he went to see her anyway.

Henry grabbed his keys and placed the duffle bag on his shoulder and left the apartment.

 _What was I thinking?_ Regina thought to herself as she paced about her bedroom.

She had no idea why she was feeling so strange being around Emma. That woman just surprised her at every turn.

 _So what if she is a lesbian? Many people are gay and they have straight friends. It doesn't mean that their friends will end up being gay as well. I really like spending time with Emma. That doesn't mean I have feelings for her. I'm a married woman. I was…_

The brunette looked around her bedroom. The last time she was there, Daniel was still alive.

 _Daniel._

Regina was feeling guilty. She hadn't even gotten a chance to visit her late husband's grave. She didn't get a chance to say goodbye. She felt so lonely even when she was in a coma she could feel the sense of loss. The ache and yearning of being held again.

The brunette picked up a photo frame from the bedside table. She ran her fingers on Daniel's chiseled face. He was a very handsome man with short brown floppy hair and deep blue eyes. He had always kept his face clean shaven even though Regina didn't mind the scruffy beard he had in the mornings. She missed him so much. A single tear fell down her face.

She brought the photo close to her chest and sat down on her side of the bed. She kicked off the sneakers she was wearing earlier and laid down. She turned to the empty space next to her. She placed the photo frame down so that she could see the photograph of Daniel. She took his pillow and hugged it tightly and breathed in the scent. It still smelled like her husband. Regina sobbed uncontrollably.

 _I miss you._


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Waiting in his car, Dr Whale saw the yellow bug parked on the street. He took out regina's file from his briefcase and saw that the address written there was nowhere near this street. Not knowing how long the two women would be gone for, he parked his car in the next available lot.

He got out of his car and sneaked up onto the bug. He reached into his coat pocket for a tracking device. He had invested in many spying equipment upon realising unusual activities happening in Regina Mills' hospital room. He was glad that he decided on a tracking device as well.

Dr Whale activated the device and placed it under the Volkswagen. Now, he can go home and track the movements on his computer. Soon, this car will lead him to the ASF and he can find out what it is and maybe persuade some witches to work for him.

Pleased with his handiwork, the doctor got back into his car and drove home.

"I swear that this is her room." Paige whispered to her accomplice.

They had sneaked into the hospital to finish the job on Agent Regina Mills. The middle-aged accomplice looked around the room. He picked up the chart at the foot of the bed. It shows that the agent was recovering well but had lost the ability to move her legs.

"If she was immobile, where could she have gone?" the Scottish man asked accusingly to the young lady.

"I don't know." Paige was feeling anxious because this man was a loose canon. He could destroy her in seconds.

"Well dearie, why don't you go find the son and find out." he suggested.

"Yes, Master." she bowed her head.

The Scottish man waved his arm around and they both disappeared from the room.

It had been days since Emma last worked with Henry. She missed her partner a lot. She had been working on the task force ever since but it was not the same without a partner. The blonde was sitting alone at the diner.

The waitress, Ruby Lukas, walks over to Emma's table.

"You've been moping about for days. What's wrong, honey?" asked Ruby.

Emma sighed.

"Work hasn't been the same since my best friend left. I can't even get hold of him on the phone." the blonde explained.

Upon hearing Emma's woe, the waitress sat down opposite the blonde.

"He'll come around eventually. Sounds like he needed some space." Ruby reassured.

The agent hadn't realised it but this was the first time her crush had actually chatted with her. She was way too upset to notice.

"Order up!" came a voice from the kitchen.

Ruby got up from the seat and sauntered to collect the food. She swayed her hips a little more than usual hoping to cheer her new friend up but the blonde gave no notice to the show. The waitress turned to see if she received any reaction. She saw that an old man seated on the opposite end of the eatery practically had his jaw dropped onto the table. Her eyes swept across the whole diner and it turned out everybody did have a reaction to her little sway. Everyone that is, except for Emma.

The waitress picked up the food from the kitchen window. It was Emma's grilled cheese sandwich. Ruby brought it over to the sad customer. She attempted another try at being sexy for the blonde.

Yet again, Emma gave no notice. the waitress placed the food in front of the blonde.

"You know you can really make a girl feel under appreciated sometimes!"

"What?" Emma snapped out of her daze.

"Here I was being all sexy for you and you gave no notice!" Ruby huffed.

The blonde looked around her. Each and every customer there practically had their eyes popped out of their sockets. She had definitely missed a great show.

"I'm sorry." Emma's apology sounded really sad.

Ruby smiled and kissed the blonde on the cheek. Emma cracked a smile like an idiot.

"That's better. Don't be a sad kitty, eat your sandwich. It's on the house." Ruby winked and went back to serve other customers. Patting herself on the back for a job well-done.

 _Ruby is right. He will come around._ Emma thought as she took a bite out of her sandwich.

It was late afternoon at the ASF base. Mary-Margaret and David have gone off to follow a new lead in the case. They have matched the symbol found on the victims' forehead to a local occult and they have also found their coven.

Emma stayed behind to work on a protection spell for when they confront the most wanted sorcerer in ASF. Coming up with a new spell to defend against an old powerful attack is no easy feat.

"Agent Swan?" a male voice called out.

The blonde looked up to see that her chief was approaching her desk.

"How is the spell coming along?" Agent Humbert asked.

"It still needs a little work." Emma replied.

"I believe I have someone here who can help you with the spell." the chief turned to reveal Emma's new partner.

"This is Agent Mills." he announced.

For a second Emma thought it would be Henry until she saw a woman stepped out from behind a wall.

"Regina." Emma sounded slightly disappointed.

"It's Agent Mills at the workplace, Agent Swan." Regina sounded cold and unfriendly. Just like the first time they had met.

"Sorry." Emma was puzzled as to why this woman was so closed up as if they hadn't had a good time just days ago.

"Agent Mills is back on active duty seeing as she has recovered from her injuries. Since the two of you need a new partner, I figured that you should work together. Get to know each other and then get to work." the chief took his leave. Just as he past by Regina he whispered "Be nice.".

Agent Graham Humbert walked a few paces before turning around to face the two ladies.

"Oh and don't worry about the doctor at the hospital, we have agents tracking him down. We'll stop him from exposing our world."

Upon Regina leaving the bar the other night, Emma reported about Doctor Whale to the ASF. They have since seized his equipment and destroyed the evidence he had collected. He was now on the run.

"Thank you, sir." Regina said.

The brunette sat down at the desk opposite Emma.

"You know, Henry used to sit at that desk." the blonde said.

"Really? This was Daniel's desk."Regina ran her hand along the edge of the desk.

"Are you okay?"

"No." Regina said simply.

"We will get the son of a bitch!" Emma promised.

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Agent Swan." Regina stared the blonde in the eyes.

This woman before her was not the kind and gentle Regina she had met. Her walls are up and she appeared hardened.

"Have you heard from Henry?" the blonde inquired.

"No."

The two women sat in silence while working on the spell. Emma continued with what she already had and Regina started a new one on her own.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"You're going out again, Henry?" Violet, Henry's girlfriend, woke up to find her boyfriend was dressed and packing his things.

"Yes."

"Where are you going? It's five in the morning! Come back to bed, baby." the long haired brunette sat up, wrapping the covers around her chest.

Henry ignored the request and continued packing. He was packing all of his belongings this time.

"When will you be back?" Violet asked again.

"When I come back." Henry avoided eye contact with his girlfriend.

He didn't have the heart to tell her that he was on a dangerous mission and may possibly not return. The young man walked over to the bed and planted a kiss on his beloved lips.

"Don't worry about me. I will return as soon as I can." Henry said tenderly.

Violet watched as Henry collected his things and left the apartment. The last time her boyfriend did this, he was gone for almost a year. They barely spoke to each other. Henry was a different person when he returned. He never did explain why he had left college. He could have taken some time off and return in the next semester. But he decided to drop out and work. Violet was curious of Henry's work. He never spoke of what he did or where he worked. Their phone conversations were short and her boyfriend was always exhausted.

The young lady trusted that Henry had his reasons and will explain to her when he was ready. Violet laid back down in bed and stared at the ceiling wishing for her old Henry to return.

"Who are you people?" Doctor Whale asked the man and the woman standing before him.

All he remembered was being knocked unconscious and when he awoke, he found himself tied to a chair in a dark and damp room. It looked to be an abandoned building.

"Who we are is not important, dearie. What we want to know is why you were lurking outside of Regina's house?" the Scottish man spoke slowly.

The doctor took a good look at the older man. He was well-dressed, wearing a three piece suit and a long coat that fell just below his knees. He wore a red tie that matched his pocket square. By the looks of it, this man was definitely wealthy.

"I don't know what you are talking about!" the kidnapped man argued.

"Look, doctor, we know that the ASF have raided your home, your office and seized all of your spy equipment. What were you spying?" the elderly man was trying his best to keep calm.

"Wait! You're not the ASF?" Dr Whale, in that moment realised that he was in deeper than he had imagined.

The kidnapper threw a fireball to the doctor's face and froze it inches from his skin.

"Tell me, or I'll burn your face off!"

"Alright! Alright! Please! Don't hurt me!"

The older man waved his hand and the frozen fireball hit the wall.

"Speak."

"I wanted proof that Regina was a witch. I was spying on her to capture her using magic. I was going to blackmail her into working for me. To use magic to heal patients of incurable illnesses and injuries."

"How noble. A villain with a good heart." the kidnapper chortled.

Paige join in the laughter as well. Dr Whale found this very unsettling.

"Would you want to possess this powers yourself?"

"How can I have powers if I'm not a witch?"

"You can have all the power in the world just like this young lady here. She was mortal until I taught her magic. And now, she is a hundred times more powerful than Regina."

The doctor's greed got the better of him.

"Teach me. Please teach me O Wise One!" Dr Whale pleaded.

"The name is Gold. You can call me Master." Gold grinned an eery grin.

"Please teach me, Master Gold."

Gold moved his finger and the chair Dr Whale was tied to disappeared. The doctor got on his knees and bowed to his master.

"Guys! Come take a look at this!" Lily stuck her head out of the media room, calling the attention of the few agents that were still at the base.

Everybody gathered in the small room and stared at one of the monitors. It was the hospital room Regina was in. It showed Dr Whale entering the room, talking to Regina and grabbing her hand.

Emma placed her hand on Regina's shoulder. The brunette welcomed her partner's comfort. She placed a hand on Emma's. The blonde can tell that this footage made Regina uncomfortable.

"What exactly do you want us to see here Agent Page?" a slightly annoyed Emma asked Lily.

"Hang on, let me forward this a little." Lily forwarded the tape about half an hour after Emma had teleported out of the room with Regina in her arms.

Every agent in the room was now staring at an empty hospital room waiting for something big to happen. Then, all of a sudden, two new figures entered the room. Regina recognised both of them.

"That's them! They were the ones that stole the ancient spell book!" the older brunette pointed out.

It was at that moment that Regina realised, had Emma not come and take her away from the hospital, she may have been dead. She rested her head on Emma's hand. She turned to look at the blonde. Emma smiled at Regina.

"We'll get them." Emma promised.

"Yes, we will." Regina smiled.

They broke their eye contact when they heard their chief talking.

"Now that we know how the criminals look like, we can match the faces to the registered witches database. Agent Page, Agent Booth, i need you two to work on finding as much information about these people as possible."

"Yes, sir!" the two agents said in unison.

"Mills, Swan, I need you two here to work on potions and spells." the chief ordered.

"Yes, sir." Regina answered.

"No problem, sir." Emma said.

This was a big for the ASF. For too long they had been running into so many dead ends. They are now a step closer into solving this case.

The two women walked back to their desks. Emma was just about to continue on her spells when Regina suddenly spoke.

"I'm worried about Henry."

"Me too."

"We are close to solving this case, I want to stop him from pursuing the culprits on his own. I think we can convince him now."

"I agree with you, Regina. But, where can we find him?"

"I'll work on a locator spell. After work tonight, we go find him."

"Okay." Emma agreed.

 _We'll find you Henry, wherever you are._ Regina thought to herself.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

After a long day at work, Emma and Regina had cast a locator spell to search for Henry. They enchanted a compass to point to the direction of the young man.

The two ladies had been driving all night to no avail. They stopped by a convenience store to get some refreshments. Regina stayed behind in the car while Emma went in to buy 'reinforcements' as the blonde had put it.

"This is not working!" Regina said as Emma entered the car.

The blonde settled in her seat and divided up the food and drinks.

"We'll find him, Regina. Don't lose hope."

"Agent Swan, I appreciate your constant positivity even though the reality states that he's gone. He could be anywhere!"

"We'll try something else."

"Like what? Find a genie that can grant us three wishes? Or maybe you have a crystal ball that we can use? I've even tried using a mirror and that only works if I know where he was."

"I got a better idea!" Emma showed the brunette a map that she had just bought.

"What are you going to do with a map?"

"We can use your blood to draw a line that leads to Henry."

The blonde looked through the map to locate where they were currently. Once she had found it, Emma pricked Regina's index finger and dripped a drop of blood on the spot. They both stared at the droplet and waited. Emma closed her eyes and said an incantation.

Seconds later, the droplet began to move North-East. Emma handed Regina the map and asked her to direct the way. They were a step closer to finding the elusive Henry Mills. They were feeling good about it this time.

"Before I teach you magic, I need you to perform a series of tests." Gold said to Dr Whale.

They were now wearing black robes and standing face to face. Ten other people dressed in similar manner had gathered around them. Gold handed a ceremonial dagger to the doctor.

"You will have to kill thirteen witches with this dagger. After the kill, carve between their eyes a seven pointed star, like the symbol on the blade." the older man instructed.

"Y… y… you want me to kill people?!" the doctor stammered.

"You want powers of your own, don't you?"

"Yes but…" Gold cut him off.

"When you carve this symbol onto their foreheads, all of their powers will be transferred to you. You will possess their powers. And after your thirteenth victim, you will be unstoppable!"

 _I want to save lives! Not end them!_ Dr Whale thought to himself, too afraid to say it out loud.

"What if I refuse?" the doctor asked nervously.

"Then, we'll kill you." the master said simply.

The doctor swallowed hard. It looked like he had no choice but to obey this man or risk losing his life.

"The first kill will be a freebie." Gold said as he signalled for his minions to bring out a woman who had her head covered in a bag and hand tied behind her back.

The minion removed the bag to reveal a gagged young lady. She struggled and scream against the cloth that was shoved into her mouth.

"Kill her." Gold instructed through clenched teeth.

Dr Whale walked slowly towards the bound girl. His hands were shaking. He was really scared.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" he chanted with each step towards his prey.

Their eyes met. Tears were streaming down her face as she struggled against the restrains. Gold waved his hands and the girl became petrified, frozen on her feet.

The doctor took a deep breath and with one swift lunge of his hand, he drove the dagger deep into the young lady's abdomen. His hand was now covered in blood.

Gold unfroze the girl and her body fell to the ground.

"Now, carve that symbol on her forehead and claim your reward."

Dr Whale did as his master instructed. He knelt next to the body and started carving. As soon as he had finished with the symbol, a blue light shone out from the dead woman's forehead and entered his body. The feeling was overpowering. He fought to stay upright. He could feel a great amount of energy spreading through his veins.

When the transfer was complete, the doctor felt light as a feather.

"Reach out your right fist and picture a fireball in your hand." the Master instructed.

The doctor stretched out his arm with a clenched fist. He felt his hand grew hotter. He opened his hand and right there on his palm, was a fireball.

"Go find twelve more witches to make the transfer of power permanent and when you have completed the task, return to me. I will teach you to control the powers."

All the fear Dr Whale had earlier had left his body. He only felt hunger for more power.

"Yes, Master." the doctor bowed his head and pictured Regina's home in his mind.

He felt his body lifted. He opened his eyes and found that he had successfully teleported. He was standing outside of Regina's home. The doctor was getting the hang of his powers.

 _This I can get used to._ He smiled to himself.

The doctor visualised being inside Regina's home. Smoke engulfed him and he rematerialised inside the house. He sneaked around looking for the brunette. She was not home. He decided to wait until the witch had returned.

After driving for hours, Henry stopped his car by the side of the road. He cannot go on driving around aimlessly. He was wasting precious time. He needed to look into the files the ASF had on the case he worked on before he left the agency.

He closed his eyes and visualised the base and the possible location the file could be placed. He was actually moving around the base telepathically. He saw Emma at her desk, he looked around to see if the case file was with her. It was not. He moved on to David's desk. There were a couple of files there. He slowly sifted through them.

"Somebody's here! Sound the alarm!" Henry heard someone shouted.

He opened his eyes and managed to return to his body just in time before they could trap him. He looked down in his hands, he had actually managed to steal one of the files. He smiled, pleased with himself.

The young man opened the file.

 _Apprehended: Jefferson Walker_

 _Still at large: Paige Walker_

 _Mastermind: A Scottish middle-aged male_

 _Paige Walker?!_ Henry read the name again.

He was shocked to see his childhood friend was involved in this case. He wondered if this was the reason his mother wanted him to stay away from the case all along. He recalled that Paige had actually tried to talk to him a few days back.

 _Why was she at the hospital?_ Henry asked himself.

 _I need to find her!_


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"We are catching up to him. He is very near here." Regina said excitedly.

Emma turned to look at the brunette and smiled. They must have driven for almost two hours now following the directions on the map.

Suddenly, something crashed into their windshield. Emma hit the brakes hard. The object that had smashed in the windshield rolled off and fell in front of the car.

"Regina! Are you okay?" the trembling blonde turned to look at her passenger.

"Yeah… I'm alright."

Neither ladies had any visible injuries on them. There was, however, blood on the outside of the windshield. Emma got out of her bug to inspect the object that hit them.

She couldn't really see it clearly because the road was very dark. She moved closer to it. It was a body!

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Regina! Help!" Emma called for the brunette's attention.

Regina got out of the car and went over to Emma. They both looked at the body lying in front of them. It was a woman and she had a symbol carved into her forehead just like the other victims the ASF were investigating.

The ASF worked very quickly. Within ten minutes, the investigation team as well as the clean up team had arrived. They took pictures, searched the area for clues and evidence, scry the place for supernatural activities and cleaned up the place to make it look like nothing happened.

The ASF may be quick, but they still took an hour before they were done. They even repaired Emma's bug. Exhaustion got the better of Agent Swan and Agent Mills. They were so close to locating Henry but were delayed by flying dead bodies.

"I think maybe we call it a night? I mean what are we going to do when we see Henry? Fall asleep?" Emma said.

"I guess you are right. Are you okay to drive?" Regina asked the blonde.

"I actually live near here, where do you stay?"

"Nowhere close. Is it okay if I crash at your place?"

"Sure!"

The two women entered the yellow car and drove to Emma's apartment.

"I'm sorry to trouble you so much today." Regina apologised to her host.

"What are you talking about? I am happy to help." Emma handed the brunette a bottle of beer and sat down next to her on the couch.

" Well, thank you." Regina took a sip of her beer.

"You're welcome." Emma took a chug of her beer.

"Ugh! We were so close though!"

"I know. We'll find him tomorrow. He is a grown man, he can take care of himself."

"So was my husband. " the brunette stared into the distance.

Emma placed her arm around Regina's shoulder.

"What made you join ASF?" Emma asked, trying to distract the brunette from being sad.

"Well, my dad, Henry Senior, was a chief at the ASF. He was a brave man and also very smart. He and my mom used to tell me stories of their conquests." Regina said with pride.

The blonde found her adorable.

"When I was really young, I remembered telling myself that I wanted to be just like them. I guess it's no surprise that my son wanted to do the same."

"He is a fine agent." They clinked their bottles on that.

"How about you? What made you join ASF?"

"I was an orphan moving from foster home to foster home. It wasn't easy to be a witch and living with mortals. I got into so much trouble. I ran away at the age of 16. The ASF found me and took me in. There were other orphans like me there. We trained to be agents and here I am."

Regina was moved by the story.

"Were you pressured to be an agent or was it something that you wanted to do?"

"I wanted to be one. It made me feel proud. Happy. They showed me that my powers were a gift and not a curse."

The two ladies continued drinking and chatting. Although they were tired, they carried on.

Emma opened a bottle of red wine and they talked about past cases they had worked on at the ASF. Emma talked about her failed conquests with Ruby, the waitress at the diner, and many others.

When the topic of Daniel came up, Regina felt very emotional. She drank more of the wine. She was getting pretty drunk.

"I loved him so much. I miss him a lot." Regina said.

Emma hugged Regina.

This woman had a very tough year. Emma couldn't imagine how it would have been like to wake up from a coma to find out that everything was different.

Regina nuzzled her head into Emma's neck. She trailed kisses up the neck and planted one on the blonde's lips.

Emma broke away from the kiss.

"I can't do this. You are drunk and vulnerable." the blonde tried to pull away from the embrace.

"I think I am falling for you." Regina's speech was getting slurred.

"What?" Emma was not sure if Regina meant what she said.

The blonde got up from the couch and Regina fell face down on the seat. She did not move.

"Regina?"

 _Snore._

The brunette had fallen asleep. Emma shook her head.

"Come on. Let's get you to bed."

Emma carried the brunette to her bedroom and lay her down on the bed. She magicked a silk pyjamas on Regina and tucked her in. She took one pillow and a blanket from her bed and left the room.

"Goodnight, Regina Mills." Emma whispered before closing the bedroom door.

Doctor Whale woke up. He had fallen asleep waiting for Regina to come home. He wondered if the brunette was actually home and did not see him in the living room. He creeped around the house looking for the witch.

After looking in every room of the house, he realised that she had not come home. Maybe she did see him and went off.

Disappointed that he could not get his kill, he teleported himself out of the house.

"Why have you come here?" Gold was getting frustrated with his new coven member.

"I need your help, Master. I need help to find Regina." Doctor Whale bowed his head as he talked to Master Gold.

The sorcerer laughed.

"You? Want to go after Regina? You fool! Your power is evanescent! It could fade at any time! And you want to take on a powerful witch like Regina?" Gold mocked.

The doctor felt foolish. He _was_ getting ambitious.

"Do yourself a favour, dearie, and find weaker prey to practice on before you start going after a beast."

"Yes, Master." Dr Whale bowed again.

"Don't come back here until you have completed your task or I'll turn you into ashes!" Master Gold warned.

"Yes, Master." the doctor teleported himself out of there.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Excuse me?" Henry said, trying to get the attention of the hospital receptionist.

"Yes? How may I help you?" the receptionist replied without looking up. She was clearly preoccupied with sorting through the documents in front of her.

"I'm looking for the candy-striper who is a regular here."

The receptionist looked at Henry, her irritation displayed clearly on her face.

"Young man, this is a hospital. Not a dating site!"

Henry realised that he needed a compelling story to get the older woman to cooperate.

"Sorry. It's nothing like that. My mom was admitted here and the candy-striper, Paige I think her name was, had kept my mother company and my mom is discharged now and I would like to thank her on behalf of my mother." Henry's agent training came in very useful.

"Oh! How sweet of you! Let me check if she is here today." the receptionist look through the time sheet.

"I'm sorry, Paige had not been here for a few days now." the older lady looked apologetic.

"Is there any way that I could get hold of her? I really want to show her my gratitude." Henry's acting was Oscar worthy.

"Usually we don't give out such information, but I guess I can make an exception for you." the woman flipped through a file.

Henry was pleased that he had managed to persuade the receptionist.

"Here is her number, 555-2349."

"555-2349. Got it!" Henry typed it out in his phone contact. "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome!" the receptionist smiled widely at Henry.

Henry left the hospital and got into his Subaru that he had parked outside the hospital. He took his phone out from his pocket and dialled Paige's number.

"Hello?… It's Henry… Can we meet?"

Regina woke up and was confused as to where she was. She did not remember much of what had happened the night before. She looked around for a semblance of a clue as to whose bedroom she was in. She was still tired and could barely open her eyes fully. She looked down at her body, she was wearing a nice heather grey silk pyjamas.

 _Whoever owned these pyjamas had good taste._ She thought.

The brunette spotted a red leather jacket slung over a chair next to the door.

 _Emma._

She got out of bed in search of the blonde. Her head was pounding. She felt like she had drunk a whole keg of beer. The brunette walked out of the room and saw that the blonde was cooking in the kitchen and clearly not suffering from a hangover.

"Hey there sleepy head!" Emma greeted the blonde.

"What time is it?" Regina groaned.

"11 a.m."

"Shit! We're so late for work!" the brunette started to panic. Her second day back at work and already she was getting into trouble.

"Relax! Chief gave us the day off."

"Really?"

"Yeah. After the accident, he figured we may need to take time off to get over what happened. It was quite nerve-wrecking."

"That's good. I don't think I'm up for solving anything today." Regina plopped herself down onto a barstool at the kitchen counter.

"Here, have something to eat." Emma served a plate of omelette, sausages and hash brown. She placed the plate in from of her friend.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Hey, Emma?"

"Yep?"

"Did anything happen last night?"

"What do you mean?"

"Er… I'm drawing a blank. All I remember was driving around and then coming here and then nothing."

"Oh. We drank. We talked."

"Did we… er… did we sleep together?"

"How you mean?"

"You know like… did we…?" Regina was having trouble getting the words out. She was curious of how she got into the blonde's bed.

"Don't worry. Nothing happened. We talked, and you fell asleep." Emma chose not to disclose that the brunette had kissed her and professed her feelings for the blonde. She was sure it was more of the booze talking.

"I don't know why I drank so much last night. I get drunk very easily."

"Do you want some beer?" Emma teased.

Regina picked up a small piece of hash brown and tossed it at the blonde playfully. Emma sticks out her tongue.

"Thanks for the pyjamas. It's so comfortable."

"I'm glad you like it."

The ladies smiled at each other. Regina continued eating her food.

"You're not eating?" the brunette asked Emma.

"I've already had breakfast. I've also checked the map from last night, Henry is on the move again."

"What? We need to get going and catch up to him." Regina was just about to get off her seat when Emma stopped her.

"Eat up and then get dressed. Today we will talk some sense into that boy."

The brunette nodded her head. She did as Emma suggested. She needed all the energy she could get to finish the pursuit once and for all.

"I thought you said you had a girlfriend, Henry?"

"Ever since the day we saw each other again, I couldn't stop thinking about you. Can we meet? Please?" Henry did his best yearning, love-sick puppy impression.

"Well, alright. How is tomorrow at 6p.m. sound? We can meet at the cafe in front of the hospital after I'm done with my volunteer work." Paige suggested.

This would give Paige time to prepare for whatever her ex-lover had planned for her. Master Gold would be pleased.

Henry had wanted to make his meeting with Paige to be that morning itself but he didn't want to come off too eager in case the brunette suspected anything. He needed to play it cool and act as if he did not draw the connection between Paige and his father's death.

"That sounds perfect. I can't wait to see you again, Paige."

"I can't wait to see you too, Henry."

The young man ended the call. He now had plenty of time to set a trap to catch Paige and find out more about the person she was working for. He needed to prepare some potions and spells that he could use to remove any powers Paige may have gotten from the ritualistic killings if she was involved in them at all.

Henry spent the rest of the day looking for ingredients and conducting research to prepare for his meeting with Paige.

"I've received the autopsy from the body dump on Agent Swan's car last night. It shows that the woman was a bound and gagged. There was a residue of a prettified spell cast on her, undoubtedly, to make it easier to kill her without her fighting back." the ASF Chief briefed all the agents in the conference room.

"The stab wound was deep and the weapon used matched the rest of the bodies. Based on the carving on the forehead, the person who did it was inexperienced and new. Look at the lines on the symbol. The lines are not as straight as the others. The murderer seemed to be trembling. This could mean a first kill and based on the time of death, this kill was conducted just minutes before the body was dumped." Agent Humbert continued.

"That means they are expanding." Agent Booth commented.

"Possibly so. I've looked at the photographs of the other victims and noticed that there seems to be about thirteen of these so called 'first kills'." the chief replied.

"They are building an army." Agent Blanchard concluded.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Look at the pattern on the map from Henry's trail!" Emma called Regina over.

"What is it, Emma?" the brunette came out of the bedroom to see what Emma had discovered.

Regina had just gotten out of the shower and was still wrapped in a towel. The blonde tried her best not to stare at the woman's state of undress. She stared at the map instead.

"Just look."

The brunette noticed right away that Henry had made a few stops in various directions. At first glance, it looked to be random like he had no idea where he wanted to go. But upon further inspection, Regina saw the pattern as well.

"He is preparing for a battle!" the brunette exclaimed.

"Exactly! Wiccan store, the hidden library of ancient Wiccan books, the market place in China Town… he is making battle potions!"

"We need to inform the base." Regina was about to walk away.

Emma grabbed the brunette's wrist to stop her.

"No. We cannot tell them."

'What? Why not?"

"We need to be sure that he is about to battle. If the ASF ambushed Henry and stopped him, our chance to stop the perpetrators may be thwarted. Plus, we don't know if the ASF will be forgiving that Henry had gone rogue."

Regina got angry at the blonde. She stared her in the face.

"If Henry faces them alone, he may die!"

"He won't be alone. We'll be there with him." Emma's confidence convinced the brunette to go with the plan.

Regina's face softened. She felt touched that the woman before her was willing to risk her life to protect her son.

Emma looked up at the brunette. She had never had anybody look at her the way Regina was looking at her. She studied the woman's face. Her eyes were two lovely dark chocolate orbs, her nose, small and narrow, and her lips! Her upper lip had a scar in the corner. She probably got it from one of her battles for the ASF. Emma felt a need to kiss Regina right on her lip's imperfection.

"I should get dressed." the brunette said suddenly, snapping Emma out from her daydream.

"Right." the blonde said weakly.

"Didn't you say that he was not interested in you? Why is he meeting you now?" the Master asked his apprentice, Paige.

"I think he knows." the young lady replied.

"Of course he does. He is also no longer part of the ASF. He will not have any back up." Master Gold's grin was so wide, his golden tooth glistened in the corner of his lips.

"What do you wish me to do, Master?" Paige bowed her head.

"I want you to pretend that you are taken off guard. We will back you up when the time is right. He wouldn't know what hit him. Now, go about your day! Tomorrow, Henry Mills will die!"

Brown Research Library carried many historical books and was an ideal place to conduct research. It was also a place that carried a wide range of magical books tucked away in plain sight. The guardian of the books placed a cloaking spell to stop mortals from noticing those books.

Henry did not have that much of a hard time to find the spells that he would need for his potential battle. He had been preparing for this day for a long time.

It took him most of the day to prepare his arsenal of potions that he made at the back room of authentic Wiccan shops. Having almost travelled across the whole state of Maine to gather ingredients, the young brunette was feeling incredibly exhausted. He had found a spot in a forrest outside of Portland for him to rest.

He placed a protection and cloaking spell around him so that he can get all the rest that he needed. The forrest usually were infested with underling creatures of the supernatural world.

New agents at the ASF usually had cases dealing with the underlings. The underlings could be quite pesky because they were very sloppy and drew attention to themselves. The agents dealing with the cases had to deal with a lot of clean up. A good thing about mortals was that they are easily satisfied with the excitement of a mysterious unsolved story.

Henry did not want to deal with an encounter with any of them for fear of being spotted by the ASF.

The forrest was also an ideal place to meditate and prepare the mind for intense battles as it had many natural elements around. The higher the amount of natural elements, the better the mind can absorb these energies. The more in tuned a witch is at tapping onto the energy waves, the higher their power will be. Just like recharging a battery.

Henry made a campfire and sat in the middle of the forrest and placed his hands up on either side of his body. He pictured the elements; metal, wood, water, fire and earth. He focused on each of them very closely, picturing the atoms moving like currents in the air flowing to his hands.

The energy surrounded his body, lifting him off the ground. Glowing orbs moved in organic flow around him. The young witch could feel the energy pulsating through the capillaries on his fingertips to the veins in his entire body. He meditated for the entirety of the night.

When daylight broke, Henry floated back to the ground. The orbs had disappeared. He opened his eyes. He was ready for battle.

Dr Whale was not having any luck with finding witches. He figured that he could try finding some in Wiccan stores.

He walked into one that he knew of. Being in the store alone made him feel a tingle. He could feel the magical energy the place emitted. The store did not have any customers at that moment.

The doctor wandered around the store browsing the items that they sold. Some of the items looked to be cheap mass-produced Wiccan paraphernalia that had no magical qualities. Other items that were kept in glass cases had strong magical energy that drew his attention.

He heard the back door of the store opened and saw a young man walked out.

 _That is Regina's son!_ He thought to himself.

He wondered if he should try to kill that man. He then remembered how his master had laughed at him for trying to go after Regina. Her son could be just as strong.

Dr Whale had a feeling that he should report this to Master Gold. He waited for Henry to leave the store before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"You again? What did I tell you about coming here without completing your task?" Gold produced a fireball in his hand.

Dr Whale raised his hands in front of him and squeezed his eyes shut to prepare for the fireball that was about to vaporise him.

'Wait! I have news that you might like to hear!" he shouted just in time before the Master had actually thrown the fireball.

"Well? What is it?" Gold asked impatiently.

The doctor was surprised that it had actually worked.

"Regina's son. I saw him."

The master was intrigued.

"Go on."

"At a Wiccan Store, downtown."

"Did he see you?"

"No."

"I have a new task for you, Whale. Keep an eye on him and report his activities. But don't get caught. If you fail, you are dead."

"Yes, Master." Dr Whale bowed his head and vanished.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"The boy seemed to be well-prepared." Master Gold observed as he watched Henry packing potions into his messenger bag. He saw this through his magic mirror which was connected to Dr Whale's sight.

The doctor had been deployed by his master to follow Henry Mills so that he could see what the young man was up to.

"Change of plans." he said through clenched teeth.

Henry arrived at the hospital's parking garage. He thought of surprising Paige in the hospital with flowers to trick her into thinking that their meeting would be about him trying to court her. Just as he had parked his car, he noticed a familiar face approaching his Subaru. It was Regina Mills' doctor, Dr Whale.

The young man got out of his car when he saw the doctor had come over to the driver seat door.

"Hi Henry! How is your mom?"

"Hi Doctor, she's doing well. Thank you so much for helping her with her recovery." Henry said sincerely.

"Oh, I can't possibly take credit for that."

Henry was confused.

"It was you and your mother who did the healing… with magic!"

The young man gave a puzzled look to the doctor. Just as he was about to accuse the doctor of being ridiculous, Henry felt a heavy blow at the back of his head. His vision became blurry and then it went black.

The doctor looked at the attacker and smiled.

Paige smiled back. She waved her hand and all three of them vanished.

"Why is he at Maine Medical Centre?" Regina asked Emma who was driving them both in her yellow Volkswagen bug.

"The hospital you were at? That doesn't fit the pattern."

"It says here that he had been there for the past ten minutes. Do you think he is injured?"

Emma could feel the concern in the brunette's voice.

"Let's go find out."

The blonde hit the accelerator and they sped their way to the hospital.

After searching the huge hospital parking garage for almost half an hour, Emma and Regina finally spotted the blue car. The brunette immediately noticed the driver door was ajar.

She ran over to the car, her worry growing as she got closer to it.

"He's not here." Regina turned to the blonde.

Emma looked inside the car and spotted Henry's bag in there. She picked it up and saw that it contained several vials of potions.

"Regina, look." The blonde showed Regina the contents of the bag.

"He hadn't use them."

The more they investigated the car, the more puzzled they got.

Regina entered the car and instructed Emma to join her. The blonde complied.

"What did you have in mind?" Emma asked.

"I'm going to replay the scene when Henry arrived at this spot."

The blonde looked on as Regina stretched a hand and waved it over the windshield. The glass in front of them fogged up and an image of Henry was shown. The two ladies watched on as they saw Dr Whale talking to him.

Emma didn't have to turn to look at the brunette to know that the sight of the doctor brought out a scowl in her eyes.

Suddenly, Henry fell to the ground and both ladies gasps. A pretty young lady appeared, standing behind Henry, holding a baseball bat.

"Paige." Regina said.

"That was Henry's girlfriend in high school?"

The brunette nodded.

"The hot ones are always a little crazy."

"You think she is hot?" a hint of jealousy could be heard in Regina's voice.

"Are you kidding me, look at her!"

"Ms Swan, focus! Henry is missing and we don't know where they had taken him." the brunette instinctively snapped into agent mode.

Emma closed her eyes as she tried to sense the trail of residual magic from the kidnapping.

"I think I can track them. Hold my hand."

Regina placed her hand in Emma's. The blonde waved her free hand over them and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Why are you doing this?" a bound Henry asked his kidnapper who was hiding the the shadows.

"Because, Henry Mills, you are about to destroy the person who had given me the power to practice witchcraft and I can't let you do that." Paige said as she stepped out of the darkness and moved to be face to face with her ex-boyfriend.

He couldn't see much of anything save for a short distant in front of him, illuminated by a single lightbulb above him. The _tap tap_ sound made by her footsteps sounded like she was walking on metal.

"You should have been the one to give me those powers, Henry." Paige stood up and walked around the bound man.

"You were obsessed with witchcraft! You always had been!" Henry shouted into the darkness.

He was unsure if there were others in the shadows.

"And now… I have more power than you." Paige popped her head from behind Henry and whispered into his ears.

"Those powers don't belong to you!"

"Those powers were a waste to those who did not have the ability to protect themselves from a little athame." she laughed.

"How did you get so evil?"

Paige simply looked at Henry and smiled.

"Try scrying for him again!" Regina instructed Emma.

"I'm trying! It's not working!" the blonde was frustrated.

They had followed the residual scent of the magic used but this was as far as it took them. They were left in the middle of a shipping yard.

"We need to get to him before he gets hurt." the brunette was panicking.

"We will find him. We just need to focus and think of a spell we could use." Emma placed her hands on Regina's shoulders to try and calm the anxious woman.

"You are right."

Emma produced her personal spell book in her hands and flipped through the pages while Regina turned to face the mountains of containers and tried to sense Henry's presence. She could feel a hint of the young man but strong magic was cloaking them.

"You know… I have to thank you for this."

"Why?" Henry asked Paige.

"If you hadn't pushed me away, I wouldn't have left town with my mother, I wouldn't have found my own source of magic and I would have never met my father. You see, I joined the occult and they had many things to teach me. The master… the master is a great man. He knew many things. He brought my father into the occult and I knew that this was fate." Paige explained slowly.

Henry needed the woman to continue talking while he worked on removing the ropes that were on his wrists.

"Who is the master? Dr Whale?"

Paige laughed.

"That fool? He is new and quite an idiot. No. The master is somebody else. Someone who possessed the greatest power in the world. He is charismatic and charming."

The way Paige gushed about her master hinted that there was more to their relationship than just a teacher and a student.

"If he had so much power, why did he have to steal the ancient spell book?"

The ropes were getting loose now.

"There were so many of us who wanted to learn from him. We would have rituals where we would connect bodies with him. The distribution of power got reduced as more members joined. He needed an effective way for us to possess more power. The book showed us the way."

Henry cringed at the idea that somebody he used to care about dearly had shared her body with a vile man.

His hands were now freed.

All of a sudden, big metal doors swung open and Dr Whale ran into the room, his footsteps echoed loudly as they pounded against the steel floor. Henry could now see that he was in a shipping container.

"The master is here! The master is here!" the doctor said with excitement as he approached Paige and Henry.

All three of them looked expectantly at the entrance. Finally, a middle-aged man of average height strolled into the container. He stood a short distant in front of Henry and snapped his fingers. The doors swung shut.

"Nice to finally meet you, Henry." Gold grinned.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"We are wasting precious time! Henry could be badly hurt!" Regina was feeling frustrated that they could not find a better way to locate her son.

"But we have no idea where he could be." Emma understood the frustration and felt helpless in the situation.

She too was feeling the pressure as she was the one who convinced Regina that they did not need back up from the ASF.

 _BANG!_

Both women turned to the booming sound.

"Henry!" the brunette shouted and ran towards the source of the sound.

Emma followed suit, tossing her spell book in the air and let it disappear in a puff of smoke.

In the distant, they could see a shipping container that had dents on the sides. They stopped running and started sneaking closer to it, being careful not to be spotted by any guards that may be keeping watch.

"Do you think they are inside that container?" Emma asked the brunette.

Regina waved her hands over the container to sense if her son was inside.

"I can feel him." Regina said.

The brunette made an attempt to move closer to the container.

"Wait!" the blonde pulled Regina back behind the container.

"We can't just barge in there. We need a plan." Emma said.

"We go in, blow everybody who is not my son into tiny pieces and then we bring my son home." Regina started moving towards the container again.

"Good plan." Emma tailed behind the brunette.

"Master." Paige greeted as she and Dr Whale knelt down as a sign of respect.

Master Gold ignored them and continued looking at Henry. He was pleased that his minions were able to capture him.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Henry asked the man in front of him. Unafraid of his fate.

"The name is Gold. Master Gold. I am a very powerful sorcerer. I am the leader of my loyal subjects here. I bring magic to those who seek it." Gold couldn't help bragging about himself.

"What do you want with me?" the young man asked.

Gold grinned as he made a massive leather bound book appear in his hands. It was the ancient spell book!

"Do you know what this is?"

"That is the spell book you stole from the ASF!" Henry said.

"This is that very same spell book but you got it wrong, Henry. This book does not belong to the ASF. Have you ever wondered why only a select few has access to this book?"

Henry kept silence.

"The ASF tries to control all magic practitioner into thinking only light magic is good and anything dark is bad. But there is no such thing as light or dark magic. Magic is only bad if the intention is bad."

"Are you saying your intentions are good?" Henry questioned the older man.

"I am helping people. Look at Paige, all she wanted was to be able to have access to witchcraft and practice magic. The ASF would never allow her to achieve those dreams. And look at Whale, he wanted to use magic to heal people. Can you imagine the world if magic were used in hospitals? A lot of lives would have been saved."

Henry thought about what Gold was saying.

"The ASF is nothing more than an organisation that is run by the mortal government to decide how we can use our gifts. That is oppression. I merely want everybody to have the ability to practice magic freely." Gold said, matter of factly.

"Without order, magic will be abused" Henry challenged.

"That is what they want you to believe. Don't let their rhetoric cloud your judgement, dearie. Before the ASF was set up, witches were free. They did not have to declare or report anything. They did as they pleased. But then the witch hunt happened. It happened because witches were misunderstood and instead of fighting back, the so called leaders made a pact with remaining witches to start the ASF to monitor witches."

"And everybody lived peacefully." Henry said.

"Peaceful but powerless. I will change that."

"What do you need me for?" the young man was getting impatient

"I need your powers!"

He turned to Paige. "Kill him!"

The young lady nodded her head and produced an athame in her hand. She walked closer to Henry and raised her dagger in the air.

Henry swung his hand forward and threw everybody in the room against the steel walls. Gold raised his hand and used his powers to choke the young man. He lifted Henry in the air while his powers squeezed the life out of the young witch.

Suddenly, the doors to the container swung opened and Gold was sent flying to the wall.

"Stay away from my son!" Regina growled.

Emma moved closer to Gold but he disappeared. Paige got up, using all of her powers, she threw the older women out of the container before losing consciousness. Emma and Regina's bodies were aching from the impact.

While all these was going on, nobody saw Dr Whale who had picked up the athame and crawled towards a semi conscious Henry. He knelt next to the young man and stabbed him in the chest.

"Henry!" Emma yelled when she finally saw what was going on.

Regina got up and threw a fireball at her former doctor, sending him flying through the steel wall. The two women went over to where Henry was.

"Henry!" his mother cradled the lifeless young man.

"Gold." Henry whispered.

"What?" Regina asked.

"His name… is Gold." the young man lost consciousness again.

Emma hugged them both and teleported all of them out of the shipping yard.

Emma and Regina had brought Henry in to the ASF's medical centre to treat his stab wound. They didn't want to risk bringing him to a normal hospital. Both women had tried healing the young man but to no avail.

Emma updated the Chief on the incident. The rest of the ASF were deployed to several areas to hunt down Gold.

Paige had been arrested and Dr Whale did not survive the blast Regina threw at him.

"Agent Mills, I'm afraid that we couldn't heal him magically. The athame was laced with magic that prevents magic from being used for healing. We will need to let him heal naturally." Dr Walsh, the head surgeon at the medical centre informed Regina.

The brunette looked at Henry through the glass wall. Her son hadn't opened his eyes since the attack.

"Hey! How is he?" Emma asked as she stood next to Regina.

"They can't heal him with magic."

"But he'll be okay, right?"

"I hope so."

Emma placed her hand on the brunette's back to comfort her, Regina leaned her head on the blonde's shoulder.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"Agent Page, have you found anything about Gold?" Agent Humbert asked Lily.

"You might want to sit down for this one." the long-haired brunette said to the Chief.

Agent Graham Humbert took a seat next to the agent.

"Turns out Gold was an agent with the ASF." Agent Page revealed.

'What?!"

"Real name is Robert Gold, age 55, he was actively in the agency between 1987 to 1992. He was placed on a black list after displaying racist behaviour against mortals and plotting to have witches rule the country. He had since been in hiding."

Agent Humbert pondered the information for a moment.

"Print out the information and call all agents for an emergency meeting in an hour."

"Yes, sir."

The chief left the media room to prepared for the meeting.

Days had passed and there were no new developments in the case. Regina Mills barely left her son's side. Henry had been placed under an induced coma to allow for his body to heal. He had a punctured lung and a tear in his heart. The surgery he had was successful but he still needed help from a machine to breathe.

Emma's heart ached at the sight of these two people who had been so close to her since she had moved to Maine. She entered Henry's room.

"Here. Eat something." the blonde handed Regina a plastic box that contained kale salad.

'Thank you but I'm not hungry." the brunette replied.

"You gotta eat something, Regina. You've barely eaten anything all day." Emma studied the brunette's face.

"Have you had any rest since Henry's been here?." the blonde asked.

"I'll rest when I stop worrying about my son."

"Come with me." Emma placed her arm around Regina and guided her out of the room.

"Where are we going?"

"Some place less depressing." the blonde smiled, glad that there weren't much protest coming from her friend.

It was a beautiful night in Maine. Emma and Regina took a stroll in a nearby park. They talked about their dreams and aspirations, funny anecdotes, anything to keep Regina's mind from thinking about her son's injury.

"Thank you. I've not laughed like that for a very long time" Regina said to the blonde.

"What are friends for?" Emma smiled.

"You know, I really like spending time with you." the brunette confessed.

"i like spending time with you too."

"Ever since Daniel's death, I never thought that I could ever feel happy again. And with Henry being injured…" Regina started tearing up.

Emma pulled the brunette into an embrace.

"Hey there. It's okay." the blonde comforted her companion.

Regina looked up at the blonde who was smiling back at her. She closed her eyes and leaned in for a kiss.

Emma was taken aback. She pulled back. She studied the brunette's eyes. She could see longing and desire. The blonde leaned back in for a kiss.

Their lips locked for some time. Finally, Regina broke the kiss.

"Take me back to your place." the brunette breathed.

Emma held the brunette's hand and led her to a dark alley. They hugged each other and vanished in a cloud of smoke back to Emma's apartment.

When they reappeared in the apartment, Emma had also changed their clothes. Regina was wearing the same heather grey silk pyjamas from the other day and Emma was in a Cookie Monster T-shirt and matching sweat pants.

Regina stared at both of their outfits. Emma cupped the brunette's face and looked deep into her eyes.

"You've been through a lot and you are vulnerable right now. I think we'll just take it slow."

The brunette felt embarrassed for being too eager but she knew the blonde was right. She shouldn't rush into doing anything in the heat of the moment especially when she was at her most vulnerable. If her feelings for the blonde were real, she didn't have a need to rush it.

"You wanna watch a movie or something?" the blonde suggested.

"Sure!"

Regina sat down on the couch while Emma set up Netflix on her Xbox One console. The blonde joined the other woman on the couch, tapping on her controller to scroll through a collection of movies.

"How do you feel about Casablanca?" Emma asked Regina.

"Love it."

The two women smiled as they watch the movie play on the television screen. The brunette curled her legs up and leaned her head on Emma's chest. She found the position very comforting. They had a blanket over their bodies to keep themselves warm.

About half an hour into the movie, Regina had fallen asleep. She was finally relaxed enough to sleep. Emma let the brunette continue to sleep in her arms. She looked very peaceful.

The blonde lowered the volume of the television and continued watching the movie. She smiled a little when she heard Regina snore.

The next morning, Regina rolled over to find her arm resting on Emma's abdomen. They were both lying in Emma's bed in the bedroom. The blonde was still fast asleep.

Regina peeled herself off the blonde and tip-toed to the kitchen. She wanted to show her appreciation to the blonde by making her breakfast.

As she left the bedroom, she heard her handphone ringing. Not wanting the blonde to be awaken by the noise, Regina made a quick dash to the phone and answered it. She saw the screen flashed the ASF number.

"Hello?… Yes this is she… Really?! I'll be right there!" the brunette hung up.

She jumped on the bed and woke Emma up.

"Hey… morning!" the blonde said to a very cheery Regina.

"He's awake! Henry is awake!"

Emma sat up, surprised by the news.

"Really? Let's go see him."

The two women got out of bed, washed up and teleported over to the ASF base.

There was a huge commotion going on at the base that morning. Everybody was running around as if there was a fire.

Emma and Regina tried to ignore the other agents' strange behaviour. They walked straight to Henry's room.

There were even more agents gathered there. The two ladies wondered what was going on. As they got closer, they could see that one of the glass walls had shattered and Henry was no longer in his bed.

"Where did he go?" Regina asked.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Agent Lily Page was tasked to review the security footage from Henry's room. She, Emma, Regina and Agent Humbert waited intently to see what happened to Henry.

The time stamp on the video footage was at 03:16:42 when Regina pointed out that Henry's hand moved. Everybody stared quietly as the scene played out.

Henry sat up from his bed. He looked around to see where he was and instantly a look of recognition appeared on his face. He looked at his arm and chest. He had wires pasted to monitor his vital signs. He ripped those wires off. He looked at the back of his left hand where he saw a needle from the intravenous drip was inserted. He slowly pulled the needle out of his hand. He did not display any look of pain at all as if he could not feel any pain.

The young man pulled the covers off of his body and got out of bed. He started looking around the ceiling like he was looking for something. He spotted the security camera and smiled. Regina noticed that his eyes were completely black. He conjured a fireball in his hand and threw it towards the camera. The footage became static.

"Something is wrong. That is not my Henry!" Regina shouted.

Emma wrapped her arms around her partner. The brunette started crying into the blonde's shoulder.

"Agent Page, tell Agent Booth to inspect the athame. See if it is laced with any magic." Agent Humbert instructed the young brunette.

"Yes, sir." Lily left the room to carry out the instruction.

"Agent Mi… Regina…" Graham softened his tone and addressed the brunette by her first name.

"Do you have any idea where Henry may have gone?" he asked.

Regina broke away from Emma's embrace and turned to her chief. She thought for a moment.

"He's after Gold!" Regina said.

Agent August Booth is an expert at studying objects with magical properties. He was usually stationed in the magic laboratory at the ASF base studying the incantations or spells that had been used on various objects. Most witches would be able to read if there were a presence of magic and guess what it does but August was able to analyse it and pinpoint the exact spell.

David and Emma entered August's lab to check on his progress on analysing the athame.

"Have you found anything yet?" Emma asked August.

"I have figured out what the dagger did to Henry." August replied.

"What is it?" David asked.

"There is a curse tied to the blade." August answered.

"A curse? What kind of curse?" the blonde woman was curious.

"I'm not sure of the exact curse that was enacted but it had turned Henry evil somehow. It seemed to be crafted by darkness and passed on that dark quality into it's victims." the scruffy analyst said.

"This dagger was supposed to kill it's victim. I guess if the victims somehow survived the kill, the curse would be enacted on them." David concluded.

"You're right. Whoever made this dagger intended for it to be used to spread darkness." August said.

"Is there a way to reverse the curse?" Emma asked.

"I will need to do more research to identify the exact curse. I can't find this dagger in any of the archives." said the analyst.

"Maybe Gold found it in the ancient spell book." David suggested.

"Then I'm afraid we need that book to find out more about the curse. If we wait too long, the curse may be irreversible."

The three agents looked at each other. They all knew Henry and have grown to be close to the youngest agent to join the ASF. They need to work faster at recovering the book in order to save their friend. The situation is more dire than before.

Emma had broken the news to Regina earlier that evening. The brunette had asked to be alone that night. She needed time to process the situation.

She was trying to wrap her head around the fact that her son, whom she had tried to save from a path of self destruction, had turned evil despite her efforts.

The brunette poured herself a glass of red wine. She sipped it slowly.

 _Maybe if I talk to him, I can persuade him back to the light._ Regina thought to herself.

She picked up her phone and dialled her son's number.

"The number you have dialled is currently unavail…" Regina hung up the phone.

"Of course it won't be that easy." Regina muttered.

Just then, she remembered a spell she once used as a child. Her mom had taught her a spell to summon her dad when her father was out of the country on a mission. There was a huge storm that night and Regina was afraid.

Cora placed little Regina on her dressing table and asked the little girl to repeat after her. She could barely recall the exact word.

 _On this night, I miss you dearly;_

 _Out of sight, I summon you, Daddy._

After she uttered those words, her father appeared through the mirror. It created a sort of portal and she could reach out and touch her father.

Regina walked over to the mirror hanging on her living room wall. She set her wine glass down and closed her eyes.

"On this night, I miss you dearly; out of sight, I summon my son, Henry."

She opened her eyes. At first, her mirror looked exactly the same. Then, the glass disappeared and she saw Henry in his bedroom making a potion.

"Henry!" the mother called out.

Henry looked up at the sound of his mother's voice. He turned to his mirror.

"Mom?" the young man was confused. His confusion turned to anger upon realisation that his own mother had used a spell to invade his privacy.

"Henry, we need to talk."

Henry waved his hands over his apparatus and made it disappear before he walked over to his mirror.

"What do you want?" Henry's voice sounded lower than usual as if there were something or someone talking for him.

"Son, please don't succumb to the darkness. The more you use dark magic, the harder it would be to remove it's hold on you." Regina pleaded.

"What I do is my business. I have to make Gold pay for killing my father." Henry sounded more sinister with each word uttered.

"This is not the way, Henry. Killing Gold in cold blood will not bring your father back." his mother was feeling helpless.

She could tell that the darkness had taken root deep in his soul. There was no use persuading him. She needed to find a way to remove the darkness completely from taking over her son.

"How can you be so calm as to allow this man to get away with killing the man you love? Where is your sense of loyalty to my father?" Henry questioned.

Regina was dumbfounded.

Her son took her silence as his answer and waved his hand over the mirror to end the spell.

The brunette woman stared blankly at her reflection.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Henry's word rang in Regina's mind. She couldn't help but question her own loyalty to her late husband. She merely spent days grieving over her lost love before she fell for Emma. She wondered if her feelings for the blonde was more of her being needy as opposed to real love.

Regina had asked Emma to drive her to the cemetery. She needed to visit Daniel's grave and work on her feelings. The blonde was asked to wait in the car. Emma complied without any questions. She knew that this was something that her partner needed to do on her own.

Emma looked on as she saw the brunette kneel and placed a long stalk of red rose in front of the grave stone. Regina lowered her head. She continued watching as the brunette held that position for some time.

All of a sudden, her phone started ringing, snapping her out from her daze. It was Mary-Margaret. She pressed the accept button on her phone.

"Hello?" Emma said.

"How is she doing?" the voice on the other end asked.

"She could be better. Any news on Gold?" the blonde asked.

"Not yet. Paige refused to talk. Lucky for her, we are not the kind of agency to use torture to loosen her tongue." the annoyance could be heard through the phone.

"How about the reversal spell from the athame?" Emma inquired.

"No luck. We are going blind with this unknown curse. Agent Booth had called upon reinforcements from other bases to help him with the research. I wished that the agency had digitised the spell book a lot sooner to avoid this situation." the brunette said.

"Calm down, Mary-Margaret. We can figure this out. We have all the best witches working on this together." Emma comforted the agent.

"You're right. I'm gonna go back to the investigation. David and I are rounding up the occult members. Maybe one of them will squeal."

"All the best!"

They hung up.

Emma turned her attention back to Regina, who now had her head in her hands and appeared to be crying.

The blonde stepped out of the car and ran towards her partner. She placed a hand on the brunette's shoulder. Regina stood up and hugged Emma tightly.

"Come on. Let's get you home." the blonde said.

"Henry's right." Regina said out of the blue in the middle of dinner with Emma at her home.

The blonde looked up from her beef lasagne that Regina had made from scratch. The brunette enjoyed cooking. She found it comforting especially when she was upset.

"You spoke to Henry?" Emma asked.

"Yes. Last night. Through the mirror." Regina pointed to her living room mirror.

"What did he say." the blonde asked as she take another mouthful of lasagne.

"Gold killed my husband and I'm doing nothing to catch that bastard. I let him down." a hint of sadness could be heard in her voice.

"That's not true. You know that's not true. You're doing all you can. The whole agency is working on this." Emma reasoned.

"I couldn't assure Henry that I can take care of it. That's why this happened to him."

"You were in a coma. You couldn't have prevented this." Emma placed her fork down and held the brunette's hand.

"Henry needed me and I wasn't there for him."

"But I was. I saw Henry through his training at the agency. This Henry that you saw last night isn't the same one that you raised. He is cursed by the dagger."

"It doesn't matter. I barely grieved over Daniel and now I'm dating you. I've betrayed my husband."

The blonde was feeling a little hurt but she pushed the feeling aside not wanting to upset her partner.

"Why don't you talk to him?" Emma suggested.

"Talk to who? Henry?" regina was confused.

'No. Daniel."

The two women had placed candles around the dining room. They had cleared the table earlier after dinner and sourced all the ingredients they needed for the seance.

A small pot sat in the middle of the table. Regina slowly added each ingredients in precise amounts. She had never performed a seance before. There were very few successes in the witch community when it came to communicating with the dead but this was worth the try.

Emma and Regina held hands around the pot. They closed their eyes and recited the spell.

"Oh spirit beyond the realm, I hereby summon thee. Show yourself before me and answer my question three." the two women said in unison.

Wind blew around them and a clear smoke rose from the pot. The two ladies opened their eyes to see if the spell had worked.

The smoke started to take form and a face could be seen.

"Daniel." Regina gasped.

"Hello, my love." Daniel greeted.

"How are you?" the brunette asked. Immediately regretting asking a ghost how they felt.

Daniel chuckled.

"Other than being dead, I'm at peace." the spirit replied.

"Are you disappointed in me?" Regina looked away not wanting to see Daniel's reaction.

"Of course not, my dear. I'm glad that you survived so that you can take care of our son."

Regina looked into Daniel's eyes with sweet sorrow.

"You are left with one more question my dear." the spirit urged his love.

The brunette did have one more question to ask but she felt a little embarrassed to ask it.

"I know what it is and the answer is I'm happy to know that you have found someone who loves you and has taken good care of you. I approve of your relationship with Emma Swan." Daniel smiled prompting joyful tears to flow down Regina's cheeks.

Emma blushed not expecting her love's late husband to give his blessing.

"Thank you." Regina whispered.

"I've answered your questions. Now I need to make my leave. But before I go, I need to say this to you Regina, you have the strength and determination to get through this. Bring our Henry back from the darkness." As he uttered his last words, the smoke disappeared and so did Daniel Mills for the last time.

The brunette held on to Emma's hands and looked lovingly in her eyes.

"I love you."' Regina said.

"I love you too." the blonde replied.

Regina got up and went over to Emma. She kissed her lips tenderly. Emma welcomed the kiss. She caressed the brunette's face and gently kissed her lover's lips. She could feel the small scar on Regina's upper lip.

They broke away from the kiss, staring longingly in each other's eyes. They had wanted this for some time. Daniel's approval had lifted the guilt from Regina's shoulders.

They kissed again, tugging on each other's clothing. Regina unbuttoned Emma's blue dress shirt, Emma unzipped the zipper on the back of Regina's black dress. Both ladies shrugged off their clothes. The blonde's shirt was hanging from her elbow while the brunette kicked her dress off her ankles.

Emma pulled away to take in the sight of Regina's body wearing only her lace undergarments. The brunette tugged the shirt off of Emma's arms and unbuttoned her jeans. the blonde pulled her trousers off her legs with the help of the brunette. Emma was now standing in the middle of the dining room in only her tank top and boxer brief.

Regina took the blonde's hand and led her into her bedroom. Upon reaching the bed, she sat on the side and pulled the blonde near. They kissed. Emma pushed the brunette so that she fell softly onto the bed while her feet was still touching the floor. She moved one of her hands behind Regina and started undoing the black lace bra.

She managed to remove it quite easily having had many practice in the past. Using both hands, she gently removed the item of clothing that concealed the brunette's perfectly round breasts. Regina gasped as Emma's fingers brushed against her taut nipples as she removed her bra.

The blonde stopped kissing Regina as she lowered her head and licked circles around the brunette's areola. Regina bit her lip. Her sensitive nipples hadn't been touched for a long time and she was hungry for more.

Emma squeezed both breasts in her hands earning a small yelp from her lover. She trailed kisses down the brunette's abdomen and stopped at the belly button where she dipped her tongue. Regina ran her fingers through the blonde's long locks. Emma was now on her knees. She removed her two hands from cupping the breasts down to the thin piece of lace thong Regina had on.

She pulled it down slowly, driving the woman mad. The blonde could see a slick layer of arousal on Regina's clean shaven sex.

The brunette look down at the blonde. Their eyes met. Emma softly licked Regina's clitoris sending a wave of ecstasy through the brunette's body. She hungrily arched her body urging the blonde for more.

Emma looked up at Regina's face. She could see the burning need in her eyes. She wouldn't torture the brunette further. She licked circles around Regina's clitoris repeatedly before placing it between her lips and sucking gently on the swollen gland.

Regina's sex was now flowing with juices. Emma lapped up the sweet nectar several times before plunging her tongue into her opening. The brunette moaned with pleasure. The blonde pulled her tongue out and plunged again.

The brunette could feel the pleasure rising to a climax.

"Emma… Emma…" she called out. "Don't stop… please."

Emma reached one hand out to squeeze Regina's breast while the other hand cupped the brunette's round and firm butt cheek.

The blonde kept going faster and faster until Regina finally orgasmed and squirted, the sensation vibrating through her entire body.

Emma smiled as she managed to taste some of the liquid on her tongue.

"Oh my god! That was… that was new!" Regina said breathlessly.

The brunette had never orgasmed like that before and she definitely had never ejaculated in her whole life.

Emma stood up and bent over, kissing the brunette. Regina could taste her own sex in her mouth.

The brunette lifted her upper body and moved her body backwards so that she was fully on the bed. They did not break their kiss. Emma straddled Regina and crawled onto bed.

"Can I touch you?" Regina whispered.

"Yes! Please!" Emma replied, her eagerness made apparent.

Regina pushed Emma's body up and pulled the tank top off of the blond'e body. She took some time to admire the blonde's toned figure. She gently touched Emma's pink nipples. She rolled one between her fingers.

The blonde craved to be touched. She realised that Regina was a little inexperienced with making love with another woman so she had to be a little bit patient and allow the brunette to learn it slowly.

Regina pulled Emma's boxer briefs down to the blonde's knees. She slowly moved her hand to hover between Emma's legs. Her fingers were barely touching the blonde's clit but Emma could feel it there, prolonging her desire. The few seconds it took for Regina's fingers to finally make contact with the enlarged gland felt like an eternity as Emma shivered with anticipation.

When Emma could wait no longer, the blonde changed tactics and talked Regina through the whole process, directing Regina to touch her the way she liked it. Her bossiness was turning the brunette on even more.

Regina hesitantly dove a finger into Emma's need, and a look of sheer bliss broke out on the blonde's features. However much to Emma's frustration, Regina merely stopped there, unsure of how to proceed further.

"Regina, having a little trouble there?" Emma purred into Regina's ear.

Regina blushed and much to Emma's disappointment, her elegant finger retreated from Emma's silken depths.

"Can you show me how?" Regina bit her lips as she knew the blonde had caught on to her scheme to be touched.

Emma proceeded to show the brunette on Regina's own sex. She gently placed a finger against Regina's lips. The brunette willingly accepted the digit and slowly licked the tip, her eyes never leaving Emma's. Emma smiled cockily and held the digit just at Regina's lips, forcing Regina herself to suck in the finger further. Regina generously licked it. She could feel her own arousal growing. Once the digit was well coated, Emma slipped it out from between Regina's lips and moved it down her body.

"So I usually start with just the tip first" Emma said as she softly pressed the well lubricated digit against Regina's soft puckered entrance.

"Then, very gently, I press against this very delicate entrance just so. You can explore this with yourself when I'm not around at your disposal" Emma continued.

Regina blushed a deep red at the words 'disposal', making Emma grin.

Blood rushed back down to Regina's clit. The brunette's hips bucked and her chest thrust up, an even bigger orgasm from the first one was building under Emma's slow, steady directive hand.

Emma took Regina's hand and guided it to her own clit, which was glistening with juices. Regina's eyes grew wide as she could feel Emma's need growing beneath her fingers.

"Now it's your turn. Let's see just how good a student Regina Mills is." Emma instructed as she licked and nibbled softly on Regina's ear.

Regina let out a moan. Her eyes rolled upwards as her finger slipped inside of Emma. She tried to think of something witty to say in response but she was so caught up in the heat and the desire that she could only whimper and purr in response. She made her finger stroke Emma's sex slowly and steadily instead, hoping that was a good enough response to Emma's instructions.

Regina's slow strokes finally hit the spot within Emma's burning need. Emma groaned in anticipation and felt her own orgasm building as she rode Regina's fingers.

"Just like that Regina, just like that" Emma moaned into Regina's neck.

The two women rocked their bodies against each other's hand as they rose in ecstasy. Their pleasure continued to build and they both climaxed at the same time.

Emma lifted her body off of Regina and laid flat on her back next to the brunette. Regina's eyes rolled to the back of her head. She blacked out for a second.

"WOW!" Regina exclaimed.

The blonde placed her arm behind Regina's neck. The brunette rolled into the blonde and they cuddled for the rest of the night.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"Hello, Paige." Henry said as he appeared in Paige's cell.

Paige dropped her magazine when she saw the young man appeared.

"Henry? You're still alive?" Paige was surprised because she heard rumours that Henry was stabbed by the athame that should have killed him.

"I'm not here for small talk." the young man leaned against the jail wall.

"What are you here for? I've already told the other agents that I don't know anything." Paige dismissed Henry and went back to reading her magazine.

"Don't play coy with me, Paige, we both know you are very close to Gold. Now tell me where he is." Henry asked in a soft tone.

"I'm not telling." the young lady said defiantly.

Henry clenched his fist and immediately Paige's fingers started twisting.

"What are you doing?!" she screamed in pain.

"Getting what I want!" he squeezed his hand further breaking her bones one phalanges at a time.

Two of Paige's finger were broken and the pieces of bones protruded out of her skin.

"He's at the old warehouse behind the hospital." she said finally, unable to bear anymore pain.

"Thank you." Henry released his hold on the girl and disappeared from the cell as guards rushed over provoked by the screams coming from Paige's cell.

They opened the cell door to see Paige crying on the floor that was covered in drops of blood. They saw her hand was mangled and they were puzzled as to what happened. The guards helped her up and brought her to the medical centre.

Emma and Regina visited Paige at the medical centre upon hearing of her injury.

"How did this happen?" Emma asked the young lady.

"Henry. he came to my cell and did this to get information." Paige replied.

"What sort of information?" the blonde was afraid of the answer.

"Gold's whereabout." the young brunette replied.

"Did you tell him." Emma asked.

"Yes." she said feeling guilty.

Emma was notably upset but she did not blame the girl. By the looks of it, the girl held out longer than she herself would.

Paige had already been given some treatment for the hand. Since her bones were so broken up, they couldn't just cure it using a spell. A potion was given to her to aid in numbing the pain as well as speed up the bone mending process.

"Listen, Paige, I need you to cooperate with us. Henry is different now and he will destroy anybody that stands in his way. We need to get to Gold before he does." Emma explained.

"Could you tell us where Gold is?" Regina held her breath while she waited for the answer, hoping that the girl will finally cooperate.

"Yes."

Paige gave the full details of Gold's whereabouts as well as the location of the spell book. Upon receiving the information that they needed, Emma and Regina made a move to leave the room. Paige stopped them.

"Regina! I'm truly sorry for what I had done. I didn't want it to end up this way. I was blinded by Gold's promises."

The older brunette nodded her head. She needed more time before she could forgive the young lady.

Emma and Regina left the room.

Every available agent had been deployed to apprehend Gold at his hideout. They had the building surrounded.

Regina waved her hand in front of her to sense if Henry was in the building.

"Well?" Emma asked.

"He is in there. I also feel a battle going on." Regina said.

Emma signalled to Mary-Margaret and David to spread out. Emma and Regina took the front while the other two entered through the back. The other agents monitored the activities that went on inside and around the warehouse.

"I hope we're not too late." Regina whispered to the blonde as they sneaked into the top floors of the warehouse.

"We'll stop him this time." Emma promised.

"Time to face facts, dearie. If it wasn't for me, your life would have been spent being a slave to the ASF. I've given you more power than you could ever dream of!" Gold said to Henry.

"I have no use of your power. I just want you dead." Henry punctuated the end of the sentence with a fireball towards Gold.

The older man dodged the blast and laughed.

"You can't hurt me, Henry. The power you have came from me." Gold threw a fireball towards Henry.

The young man deflected the blast to the wall.

"Join me." the older man invited.

"What? Why would I join you?"

"Don't you want to grow your powers further? Learn all the things the ASF had kept locked up?"

Henry answered Gold's question with more blasts thrown at him. The first two blasts did not affect the older man at all but the last one pushed him backwards.

The young man smiled. He can use the powers against Gold. He just needed to keep throwing fireballs.

Henry raised his hand in preparation to throw a barrage of fireball when suddenly he teleported out of the warehouse.

"What the hell?" Henry was confused as to what had happened.

He tried to teleport back inside but he found that his powers were not working.

"Freeze!" Emma shouted across the room.

Gold smiled when he saw Agent Swan and Agent Mills appear in the room right after Henry left.

"Well… look who is back. Feels like deja vu." Gold said to Regina.

"The only difference is, your husband isn't here. I wonder what happened to that man." the older man teased.

It took a lot for Regina to not incinerate the despicable man right there and then.

"It's over Gold. We have you surrounded. There is nowhere for you to go." Emma said.

Both women had their arms up in front of them, ready to let out a blast in case of an attack.

Mary Margaret and David creeped in from behind the older man. He did not seem to notice their presence.

"It is over… for you!" Gold threw a huge fireball towards the two ladies in front of him.

The fireball stopped short inches in front of Emma and Regina. An invisible shield had absorbed the blast.

The other couple in the room threw a potion onto Gold. The potion restricted the old sorcerer's movements. He was immobilised. Mary Margaret and David walked over to the man and teleported him to the ASF jail.

Emma and Regina hugged, happy that this was all over and nobody got hurt.

"Where is Henry?" Emma broke from the hug.

"Somewhere safe. For now. If you would excuse me, I need to talk to my son." Regina teleported herself to her son.

Emma joined the other agents to locate the ancient spell book that started it all in the location Paige had told them.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"How could you?" Henry asked his mother angrily.

"I'm sorry, Henry. But I can't let you carry on using dark magic." the older woman replied.

The two of them were in a different realm Regina had created. It was a place that was frozen in time that existed in a mirror.

"I almost had him!" the young man screamed.

"Killing him would make the curse permanent and there is no going back from there." Regina was finding reasoning with evil a completely pointless feat.

"But I'm doing this for dad!"

"I've talked to your father. He didn't need revenge. He is in a better place now." Regina approached her son slowly.

"You talked to dad?" Henry's tone softened.

"Yes. He does not like to see you taken over by darkness. Please come back to the light." Regina choked up.

The young man thought about what his mother had said. He looked at her, his face hardened.

"You're lying!" he hissed.

Henry started charging towards his mother. Regina placed a hand in front of her and froze Henry in place. She ran over to him and hugged him as they teleported back to the base.

"What do you want?!" Henry snarled at Emma as she entered his jail cell.

"You've really upset your mother." the blonde said.

"So?" the young man couldn't be bothered with this piece of news.

"Seeing her upset makes me upset and I don't like that." Emma was very protective of the woman she loved.

"Why do you care so much?" the young man felt annoyed that the woman was interfering with his family affairs.

Emma wasn't sure if Regina had told her son of the new relationship she was in and felt that now was not a good time to disclose such information. She thought quickly for a reasonable answer.

"She's my partner, Henry. After you left the ASF, she was assigned to me and I care very much about my partners as you may very well know." she rambled.

Henry rolled his eyes. No longer interested in anything else the blonde had to say.

"Your mom really loves you. She barely left your side the whole time you were recovering from the stab wound." Emma said.

"If that were so, how come she wasn't there when I woke up?" Henry questioned.

The blonde stumbled at that question. She was clearly hiding something and the young man could tell.

"I convinced her to take a break." she said, unconvincingly.

"There is something you're not telling me." Henry walked up to Emma's face, inspecting the features, trying to read the truth.

"Are you sleeping with my mother?" he asked out of the blue.

Emma kept silent. She did not know whether to lie to him or tell the truth.

"Get out!" He shouted.

The blonde left the cell.

Emma picked up a report on her table that stated that the ASF had apprehended Gold and some of his occult members. They had also confiscated various objects that were related to dark magic and recovered the ancient spell book. She placed the report down. Overall, it was a good day at the base.

She was then called away to chat with Agent Booth who had been working hard with his fellow colleagues to work on a curse reversal spell to help Henry return to the light. Their efforts were made much easier when he got his hands on the precious tome. He updated her.

Regina sat at her desk as she stared into space. She hadn't been very chatty since she had arrested her son. She felt a huge sense of guilt.

Moments later, Emma returned back to her desk. She noticed the brunette was still brooding. .

"Don't worry. I was just with August. He said that they have found a way to remove the darkness from Henry." the blonde smiled.

Regina blinked and turned to Emma.

"Really?" the brunette said in disbelief.

The blonde nodded her head and smiled.

"Thank you."

"Technically you should be thanking August." Emma said.

"I meant thank you for being there for me. You gave me the courage to help me get through this." Regina reached out to hold Emma's hand. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Just then, Agent Graham Humbert entered the room.

"Agent Mills? Agent Booth and his team are preparing for the ritual to eradicate the darkness from Henry. Would you like to join us?"

Regina wiped her tear and got up to follow the chief. Emma tagged along.

The ASF base had many rooms for various purposes. One of those rooms was designed to withstand strong forces. It was usually used to perform untested major spells that could affect the environment greatly.

This room was called The Void. The walls are lined with powerful pure crystals that created a protection shield to ensure that the building remained intact. Despite it's magnitude and expensive protective elements, this room was rarely used.

The ASF Maine Base had low supernatural ratings. It mostly dealt with registering new witches and covering up accidental supernatural mishaps. That was why the ancient tome was brought to the base in the first place. It was the least likely place for the spell book to go missing.

All the agents in the base gathered in a circle around the room. The ritual that was about to be conducted needed as much power as possible. Regina stood in the middle awaiting her son to be brought in.

A moment later the heavy doors swung open. Mary Margaret, David and Graham walked in, escorting Henry who had his arms bound by magic. They brought him to stand in front of his mother.

Regina placed her hand onto the scar where his stab wound was. She channeled her energy and focused on pulling out the darkness. Henry screamed in pain as he felt his nerve endings burning. Tears started pouring down her face at the sight of her son's anguish.

The rest of the agents held hands forming a continuous circle. They chanted the spell to complete the process.

Bright blue light shone out of everybody's eyes towards the prisoner. The collective energy lifted him in the air. Thick black matter flowed out of his scar and onto Regina's hand.

Regina held out both hands to contain the darkness. Once all of the substance had left his body, Regina turned to a jar next to her and placed all the darkness in it. Graham immediately closed the lid.

The circle of witches released their chain ending the surge of energy that had helped with the ritual.

Henry gently floated to the ground. His mother caught him as he descended. He was completely drained. Regina laid him down slowly and cradled his head on her lap. She stroked his hair.

The young man opened his eyes.

"Mom?" he said weakly.

"I'm here my dear." Regina said as more tears flowed down her face.

"I'm sorry." he said as he closed his eyes again.

"I know, baby. I know." she said hugging his head.

Emma went over to where Regina was siting in the middle of the room. She hugged both Regina and Henry in her arms. The rest of the agents cleared the room, leaving them to have their private moment.

Henry laid in the hospital bed at the ASF medical centre. Emma and Regina sitting by his side. They comforted each other while they waited for the young man to recover from the eradication process.

They had been there for over five hours. They spent the time talking about their two favourite things; their job and Henry. They barely noticed the amount of time that had past.

Henry opened his eyes slowly at the sound of two women chatting. He recognised the faces and smiled.

"Mom." his voice sounded a little hoarse.

"Henry!" Regina stopped mid sentence and moved closer to her son.

The young man smiled as tears started to well up in his eyes.

"Mom, I'm sorry I said all those horrible things to you." Henry said once he composed himself enough to say it.

"That was the darkness talking, honey. I knew you didn't mean it." his mother said.

"I was so set on revenge… I didn't… I didn't process any of my feelings when dad died." he started crying.

"I'm happy to have you back." Regina started crying as well.

"I'm happy you found someone new."

Regina looked surprise that Henry knew. She was pleased to know that her son approved. She turned and smiled at Emma. Emma went over to join them and rested a hand on her lover's back.

"I wouldn't have picked anyone else to be my mother's partner. You've always looked out for me. I'm proud to have you in both our lives" Henry said weakly.

Emma felt tears well up in her eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her hand. She had a feeling that she finally found her family.

THE END


End file.
